Vase, cover, pedestal in two parts and stand, Meissen porcelain painted and gilt and with relief-modelled applied flowers. Engraved metal band and painted wooden plinth. Displayed at Great Exhibition, 1851

Elaborate two-handled porcelain vase with cover, two-part pedestal and stand on a wooden plinth. A metal band between the vase and first part of pedestal is inscribed with "PRESENTED TO SIR WILLIAM CUBITT BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT AS A REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR OFFICIAL CONNEXION AND JOINT LABOURS FOR THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851". Both vase and stand are painted with flower sprays and Watteau-esque figure groups in compartments surrounded by raised gilding. Relief-modelled applied flowers (nasturtiums on one side and Morning Glory on the other) trail down from the neck of the vase.

Given by Mr and Mrs George Griffiths of Harare, Zimbabwe.

Prince Albert presented the vase to Sir William Cubitt (1785-1861) at the close of the Great Exhibition (where it had been exhibited) in October 1851. Along with his knighthood, it was a gift to thank Cubitt for his work as Chairman of the Building Committee (among other roles) for the Crystal Palace. William Cubitt should not be confused with his building contractor namesake whose dates were 1791-1863.
Following Cubitt's death in 1861, the vase passed to his widow Elizabeth Jane and thereafter to his son Joseph, also an engineer. After Joseph's death in 1894, it passed to his son William who displayed it until 1932 at Rumney House, his house near Cardiff. As his eldest son John Joseph was killed in action in 1915, the vase passed next to his second son, Lewis (1891-1976) who had emigrated to South Africa to farm in 1910. Lewis married Daphne, a South African-born Englishwoman and on retirement, they moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). When their daughter Halcyon married George Beale in 1956, the couple were given the vase as a wedding present.
Finding space limited and the vase delicate and hard to keep clean, the Beales lent the vase to the Salisbury (now Harare) Museum in 1957. When the Museum returned it to the Beales in 1977/78, they decided to sell the vase to a local antique dealer. The vase was purchased by a ceramics collector, George Griffiths, and his second wife Joan. In 2002, Mrs. Griffiths offered the Meissen vase to the V&A as a gift shortly before her death.

This imposing painted and gilded neo-rococo style vase took nine months to make at the Meissen porcelain factory, Saxony (Germany). It was made for exhibition at the Great Exhibition which was held in the famous Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London, in 1851.
The elaborate decoration includes a rustic scene in the style of the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), while nasturtiums and Morning Glory appear to creep over the lid and shoulder of the vase.
An engraved metal band around the vase and an accompanying manuscript letter indicate that at the close of the Great Exhibition, Prince Albert (1819-61, husband of Queen Victoria and from 1857 Prince Consort) presented the vase to Sir William Cubitt to thank him for his work as Chairman of the Building Committee for the Crystal Palace. Cubitt (1785-1861) was a skilled and highly successful civil and mechanical engineer.
After Cubitt's death, the vase moved from London to Wales and then by inheritance to South Africa and later Zimbabwe before being sold to a ceramics collector whose widow offered it as a gift to the V&A shortly before her death. As the V&A was built from the profits of the Great Exhibition, the vase has satisfyingly 'come full circle'.

C.34:1 to 7-2002