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Flask
Gouyn, Charles - Enlarge image
Flask
- Place of origin:
London, England (made)
- Date:
1749-1759 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Gouyn, Charles (factory of, maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels, with gem-set gilt-metal mounts
- Museum number:
2000-1855
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 53a, case 1
Object Type
This bottle was a container for a woman's scent. It was most probably kept on a dressing table, for it would have been easy either to damage the bottle or spill its contents. Even so, some scent bottles of this general type survive with hinged and fitted leather travelling cases.
People
The bottle was made at the factory of Charles Gouyn (died 1785), a second-generation Huguenot with a jeweller's shop in St James's, London. Gouyn had been a partner in the Chelsea porcelain factory before starting his own factory around 1748-9.
Materials & Making
Several lead-casting models for Chelsea porcelain scent bottles of this general type survive. The shape was probably first modelled in wax and a lead casting model was then made from the wax original. These lead models were used to make the plaster moulds in which the porcelain bottles were formed by slip-casting. In this process a mixture of clay and water is poured into a hollow mould. The water then evaporates, leaving a thin layer of the clay mixture clinging to the inside of the mould. The mould would have been made in two pieces so that it could be taken apart once the bottle had been cast.
