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Vase and cover
Chamberlain & Co. - Enlarge image
Vase and cover
- Place of origin:
Worcester, England (made)
- Date:
1810-1820 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Chamberlain & Co. (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Porcelain painted with enamels and gilded
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by Herbert Allen
- Museum number:
C.511&A-1935
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 120, case 7
Object Type
Sets of three, five, seven or even nine vases were known as 'suites of vases' in the 18th and early 19th centuries. They were commonly set out on mantelpieces, with the largest one in the middle, much as today. This is one of a set with C.511B-1935 and C.511C-1935 intended to be viewed from the front, as the finely painted panels are on one side only.
People
Robert Chamberlain (1736-1798), who founded the factory that made these vases, was apprenticed to learn 'pot painting' at the Worcester porcelain factory. In due course he took charge of the 'ornamental part of the production' there. Around 1786 he left this factory and started his own business in Worcester. At first he ran it as a decorating workshop, but within a few years he was manufacturing wares himself, in direct competition with his former employers. During the first decades of the 19th century, the factory specialized in tea- and tablewares with elaborate enamelling and gilding. These were often similar in style to those of the factory's Worcester rivals, but of higher quality.
Subjects Depicted
Shells, seaweed and trompe-l'oeil feathers were popular subjects for ornamental porcelain wares and cabinet pieces made at Worcester and Derby in the 1810s.
