Vase
Category
Ceramics
Date
1800 (circa) - 1810 (circa)
Materials
Pottery
Measurements
350 mm (Height); 185 mm (Diameter); 270 mm (Diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 532379
Summary
Vase, porcelain, of compressed baluster shape, with a pair of applied handles on the shoulders in the shape of stylised demon (taotieh) heads, made in Jingdezhen, China, c. 1800–10. The vase has a ‘tea dust’ mottled brown glaze decorated in white engobe (liquid clay) with prunus and butterflies, the rims with a brown wash imitating stoneware.
Full description
George Hammond Lucy (1789-1845) purchased this vase in 1823 from the Fonthill Abbey sale, lot 1437, for £8.8s (i). Fonthill Abbey was the home of William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844) a prominent collector, enslaver and plantation landlord. The fourth generation of enslavers, Beckford had inherited 15 Jamaican plantations in 1770, with over 1,000 people were enslaved in his name (ii). Using wealth gained from their labour, he commissioned the building of Fonthill Abbey and curated an extensive art collection (iii). Due to mismanagement, lawsuits and the decline in profits from sugar, Beckford was forced to sell the abbey and his collection in 1822. Originally intended for sale by auction, the estate was instead privately sold (iv). The new buyer arranged a separate auction of the collection in 1823, attended by Lucy (v). This vase does not feature in the 1822 auction catalogue. It is likely that the auctioneer in 1823, Harry Phillips (fl.1796 – d.1840), introduced items that were not associated with Beckford into the sale. In her family biography, Mary Elizabeth Lucy (1803-90) recorded the vase on the chimney piece in the Dining Room (vi). (i) A Catalogue of the Costly and Interesting Effects of Fonthill Abbey, (London, 1823), p. 208; Auction catalogue, 1823, NT 3045887. (ii) 'William Thomas Beckford', Legacies of British Slave-Ownership database, UCL, accessed 30/05/2024. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/22232 (iii) See Boyd Alexander, (trans. and ed.), Life at Fonthill 1807-1822 With Interludes in Paris and London. From the Correspondence of William Beckford, (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957); England’s Wealthiest Son: A Study of William Beckford, (London: Centaur Press Lt., 1962); Amy Frost, ‘The Beckford Era’ in Caroline Dakers (ed.), Fonthill Recovered: A Cultural History, (London: UCL Press, 2018), pp. 59-93 (iv) Caroline Dakers ‘The break-up of the Fonthill estate’ in Caroline Dakers (ed.), Fonthill Recovered: A Cultural History, (London: UCL Press, 2018), pp. 97-98 (v) Warwickshire Record Office L6/1116 (vi) Mary Elizabeth Lucy, Biography of the Lucy Family at Charlecote Park in the County of Warwick, (London: privately printed by Emily Faithful & Co, 1862), p. 130
Provenance
Bought by George Hammond Lucy £8.8.0 in the Fonthill Sale, 1823, Lot 1437.