Vase
1824-1825 (hallmarked)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This huge silver vase has an unusually full life story. We know who designed it, who made it and who sold it. We also know for whom it was made and how much it cost. There are no periods in its 193-year life where we do not know who owned it.
The vase is based on a marble vase in the British Museum that stands almost 3 metres tall. The original vase was assembled in the 1770s by the Italian archaeologist and restorer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi. He used ancient fragments excavated at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli as well as modern parts made in his workshop. Piranesi’s meticulous engravings of the vase inspired the silver version.
The London silversmiths, Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard, made the silver vase in 1824. The company’s business archive belongs to the V&A and contains documentary records of the vase’s manufacture and metal patterns used in the process.
Inscriptions on the vase record it was commissioned from Fisher, Braithwaite and Jones of London and presented to Major General Sir Edward Barnes in 1824. When he died in 1838 he left it to the Army and Navy Club, an organisation he co-founded, from where it was sold in 1983. It is now one of the most spectacular pieces in the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the V&A.
The vase is based on a marble vase in the British Museum that stands almost 3 metres tall. The original vase was assembled in the 1770s by the Italian archaeologist and restorer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi. He used ancient fragments excavated at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli as well as modern parts made in his workshop. Piranesi’s meticulous engravings of the vase inspired the silver version.
The London silversmiths, Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard, made the silver vase in 1824. The company’s business archive belongs to the V&A and contains documentary records of the vase’s manufacture and metal patterns used in the process.
Inscriptions on the vase record it was commissioned from Fisher, Braithwaite and Jones of London and presented to Major General Sir Edward Barnes in 1824. When he died in 1838 he left it to the Army and Navy Club, an organisation he co-founded, from where it was sold in 1983. It is now one of the most spectacular pieces in the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the V&A.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 22 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Raised and cast silver. |
| Brief description | Silver, London hallmarks for 1824-25, mark of Edward Barnard and Rebecca Emes. |
| Physical description | The massive vase stands on a high, triangular plinth with canted angles; on the incurved sides of the plinth are three applied bull's heads with flower-and-ribbon swags between. Around the upper moulding of the plinth is an engraved inscription. Above is a base of similar section to the plinth, with gadroon and egg-and-dart mouldings. The vase itself is of krater form supported by three paw feet with torsos of Silenus above; the lower part of the body is fluted, and three busts of young fauns are applied over the fluting. The main part of the body is modelled with a classical frieze in high relief between bands of palmettes and applied scrolling vines; the spreading lip has an egg-and-dart border and applied beading. Three sets of double scroll branches, for a total of six lights, are formed as vines springing from above the torsos; they have simulated basketwork sockets and wax pans. |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | |
| Credit line | The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
| Object history | Provenance: Major General Sir Edward Barnes. Army and Navy Club, St. James's, London. Hancocks and Company Ltd., London, 1983. |
| Summary | This huge silver vase has an unusually full life story. We know who designed it, who made it and who sold it. We also know for whom it was made and how much it cost. There are no periods in its 193-year life where we do not know who owned it. The vase is based on a marble vase in the British Museum that stands almost 3 metres tall. The original vase was assembled in the 1770s by the Italian archaeologist and restorer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi. He used ancient fragments excavated at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli as well as modern parts made in his workshop. Piranesi’s meticulous engravings of the vase inspired the silver version. The London silversmiths, Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard, made the silver vase in 1824. The company’s business archive belongs to the V&A and contains documentary records of the vase’s manufacture and metal patterns used in the process. Inscriptions on the vase record it was commissioned from Fisher, Braithwaite and Jones of London and presented to Major General Sir Edward Barnes in 1824. When he died in 1838 he left it to the Army and Navy Club, an organisation he co-founded, from where it was sold in 1983. It is now one of the most spectacular pieces in the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the V&A. |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:GILBERT.863:1-2008 |
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| Record created | June 26, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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