Pot-pourri jar
Wedgwood
Category
Ceramics
Date
1800 - 1830
Materials
Solid white jasperware with a green jasper dip
Measurements
182 mm (Height); 122 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Etruria
Order this imageCollection
Hill Top, Cumbria
NT 641465.2.1
Summary
A pot-pourri vase in white jasperware with green dip, Wedgwood, c.1800; in form of a classical vase with strap-handles ending in ram's heads; upper body decorated with lush rainceau, lower body with husk-chains. Impressed on the underside of the base 'WEDGWOOD'.
Full description
This pot-pourri vase, one of a pair, is part of the collection at Hill Top. Beatrix Potter purchased this farmhouse in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey in 1905, using the profits from her books. After her marriage to William Heelis in 1913, Beatrix relocated permanently to Sawrey. The couple made nearby Castle Cottage their home, but Beatrix spent as much time as she could at Hill Top. As well as a space for work and creativity – and the location for many of her famous tales – it became an intensely personal sanctuary for her. Beatrix knew exactly how she would decorate Hill Top and she arranged its interiors carefully and deliberately. She wrote: ‘I would have old furniture…it is not as expensive as modern furniture, and incomparably handsomer…’ Once she had renovated the farmhouse, she filled it with examples of local furniture and treasured heirlooms, like her grandmother’s warming pan and a set of plates decorated with designs by her father. Beatrix had a lifelong passion for pottery - and particularly for Wedgwood. Aged about 13, she created a beautiful pencil and chalk sketch – now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum – of a Wedgwood basalt vase owned by her parents (NT641467), which perhaps marks the start of the passion she would come to possess for the firm. The vases are described in a 1946 inventory of Hill Top, made after Beatrix’s death and following its preparation for the visiting public: ‘Pair of exceptionally fine Wedgwood urns, of classic urn shape, with pierced lids; the pale green ground decorated with delicate white tracery and with goats masks, in the “Adam” style. 1 lid damaged.’ (item 249). They were displayed on the top shelf of the glass cabinet in Beatrix’s Treasure Room. This special room included a number of items inherited from her mother and grandmother. It is also the room that contained her doll’s house, complete with furniture bought for her by her husband, Norman Warne, pieces of which feature in The Tale of Two Bad Mice. The vase was used to hold pot-pourri. It has large holes in the cover that would allow the perfume to escape and fragrance a room. The central hole is fitted with a candle socket. It is made from a type of ceramic known as jasperware, which was developed by Wedgwood in the mid 1770s and is still produced today. It has been made using a solid, white jasper body, which has then been partly dipped into a slip (liquid clay) of green coloured jasper. This technique was introduced by Wedgwood in 1777. The body and foot are decorated with very fine white ornamentation that has been moulded separately and applied to the surface of the vase. A swirling pattern of flowers and scrolling leaves is placed around its centre. On the lower body, the green dip has been cut through to create a linear pattern around the belly of the vase, with drops of stylised husks placed between. The shape of the object takes its inspiration from the Classical world – and particularly from architectural ornament. This is evident in the urn-like form of the object, as well some of the decorative motifs such as the ram’s head handle terminals.
Marks and inscriptions
(impressed lower case mark)
Makers and roles
Wedgwood, manufacturer
References
Reilly 1995: Robin Reilly, Wedgwood: The New Illustrated Dictionary (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club, 1995), pp. 239-245 Telford 1946: Mrs Telford, Catalogue of the Contents of Hill Top, Sawrey, typed manuscript, 1946, item 249