Vase
ca. 1770 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A purely decorative vase, one that would have been displayed in a domestic interior, possibly on a mantelpiece, where it might have been set out with others.
Design & Designing
Wedgwood's move into vase production coincided with the fashionable world taking up the vase as a symbol of the new 'antique' style. The demand for 'antique' vases was so great that, in addition to copying surviving Classical antiquities, manufacturers copied designs from prints of the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of these prints were highly fanciful inventions, which were not seriously intended to be models for production. Wedgwood adapted the design here from a vase print by Friedrich Kirschner (1748-1789), a German miniature painter.
Materials & Making
The vase is made of Black Basalt, one of several types of pottery that Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) introduced or refined. The black colour came from 'Carr', an oxide of iron suspended in water that had flowed through coal seams and mines.
Design & Designing
Wedgwood's move into vase production coincided with the fashionable world taking up the vase as a symbol of the new 'antique' style. The demand for 'antique' vases was so great that, in addition to copying surviving Classical antiquities, manufacturers copied designs from prints of the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of these prints were highly fanciful inventions, which were not seriously intended to be models for production. Wedgwood adapted the design here from a vase print by Friedrich Kirschner (1748-1789), a German miniature painter.
Materials & Making
The vase is made of Black Basalt, one of several types of pottery that Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) introduced or refined. The black colour came from 'Carr', an oxide of iron suspended in water that had flowed through coal seams and mines.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | |
| Brief description | Vase with fixed cover in black basalt stoneware with mask handles and acorn knop, made by Wedgwood, Etruria, Staffordshire, ca. 1770. |
| Physical description | Oviform vase with fixed cover in black basalt, decorated with engine-turned vertical gadrooning, a border of swags applied at its broadest point, satyr mask handles and an acorn knop, set on a square plinth. The vase is attached to the base by means of a metal rod and bolt. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY: ETRURIA' (mark impressed on a circular pad to the underside of the base) |
| Credit line | Private Collection |
| Object history | The source for this vase is an etching by Friedrich Kirschner (1748-89), published by Timothy Clifford. Clifford, Timothy. Some English Ceramic Vases and their Sources, Part 1. English Ceramic Circle Transactions, Volume 10, part 3, 1978, pp. 159-173 plate 85. The source etching by Kirschner is illustrated as (a), an identical vase in the Wedgwood Museum, Barlaston, complete with the satyrs' horns, is (b), and a vase in silver-gilt of the same design by John Arnell hallmarked for 1772-3 in the V& A is (c). For an example of this model in solid agate ware with creamware satyrs' heads (Circ.1 & A-1923), see Hilary, Young, ed. The Genius of Wedgwood: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995. p.110, catalogue entry E26. Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1995. For another very similar vase, also in black basalt, made by Wedgwood's rival, Humphrey Palmer, see Diana Edwards, Black Basalt, Wedgwood and Contemporary Manufacturers, Antique Collectors' Club, 1994, p.44, figure 12. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | A purely decorative vase, one that would have been displayed in a domestic interior, possibly on a mantelpiece, where it might have been set out with others. Design & Designing Wedgwood's move into vase production coincided with the fashionable world taking up the vase as a symbol of the new 'antique' style. The demand for 'antique' vases was so great that, in addition to copying surviving Classical antiquities, manufacturers copied designs from prints of the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of these prints were highly fanciful inventions, which were not seriously intended to be models for production. Wedgwood adapted the design here from a vase print by Friedrich Kirschner (1748-1789), a German miniature painter. Materials & Making The vase is made of Black Basalt, one of several types of pottery that Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) introduced or refined. The black colour came from 'Carr', an oxide of iron suspended in water that had flowed through coal seams and mines. |
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| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:CERANON.1-2012 |
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| Record created | September 12, 2012 |
| Record URL |
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