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Cup and saucer
Wedgwood - Enlarge image
Cup and saucer
- Place of origin:
Etruria, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1783 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Wedgwood (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Black basalt with 'encaustic' painting
- Credit Line:
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street
- Museum number:
2407&A-1901
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 118e, case 3
Object Type
This cup may have been from a d‚jeuner (a small tea or coffee service, made with or without a matching tray). The cost of the hand-painted decoration probably restricted the use of such wares to relatively prosperous households. They would have been used at afternoon or after-dinner tea when guests were present, or may have been personal luxuries used by wealthy individuals when taking tea in private. However, Wedgwood listed 'Etruscan cabinet cups and saucers' in his catalogue of 1779, and it may be that his teawares of this type were partly for display.
Materials & Making
The cup and saucer are made of Black Basalt, a type of fine-grained stoneware. This is impervious to liquids, although some Basalt teawares were glazed to prevent staining. In 1772 Wedgwood hoped sales of his Basalt teawares would benefit from the women's fashion for white hands, as the black pottery would make them look paler still. Wedgwood called the painting on these pieces 'encaustic'. The name was originally applied to an ancient Greek and Roman technique of painting using hot wax. Wedgwood's encaustic decoration was hand-painted in a mixture of enamel pigments and slip (a mixture of clay and water), and then fired on to the body.
