Vase and cover
probably Wedgwood
Category
Ceramics
Date
1775 - 1790
Materials
Basalt
Place of origin
Etruria
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870929
Summary
Vase and cover, in the form of a lebes gamikos (shape no. 93), black basalt, standing on a raised foot with turned foot rim, ovoid body with two tall, upright, slightly undulating loop handles attached at the shoulder, short vertical neck into which the flat cover sits, baluster knop, Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, Etruria, Staffordshire, 1775-1790; painted with encaustic decoration, at the centre a standing figure representing the goddess Nike/Victory with draped costume in tones of red and white, her right foot on a rock, holding an oval shield, band of anthemion an scrolls at rim, band of egg and dart at rim, and of ovals between double dots to lower body, all in red and white.
Full description
This vase is of a group of similar pieces at Saltram that might have been used as a group or ‘garniture’ to decorate a mantelpiece, cabinet or bookcase. Josiah Wedgwood described them as ‘fit Ornaments for the nobelest Apartments.’ Wedgwood had a large collection of sourcebooks for Classical designs at his factory in Etruria. The figure on this vase represents the goddess Nike/Victory and is probably from Bernard de Montfaucon’s L’antiquité expliquée, et représentée en figures, published in 1719, which was in Wedgwood’s library. The vase is decorated with encaustic painting, which was patented by Wedgwood in 1769. It was used primarily to imitate ancient the red figure painting on ancient Greek and Italian vases. The matt colours were applied onto unglazed black basalt (a type of stoneware) using a brush – most often in red, black and white, but occasionally in contrasting colours such blue, green and pink. Wedgwood claimed that the figures on the vases were copied from a variety of sources: ‘Gems, antique Paintings, and Bas-reliefs; and are executed with great Care by the best Hands we can employ.’ Because he patented the encaustic formula, Wedgwood had to reveal the materials he used, which included a fine slip of unaker, described as ‘Cherokee clay’, into which coloured pigments were mixed. Unaker is a fine, brilliant white mineral used for millennia by the Cherokee for ceramics and architectural uses. It was also a highly symbolic material to the Cherokee and crucial in its diplomacy. It was first brought to Britain illicitly in 1740, when the production of porcelain was in its infancy. In 1767, to ensure his supply to this material, Josiah Wedgwood hired the merchant Thomas Griffiths to travel to Keowee, a Cherokee mother town in the British Province of South Carolina. He returned with five tons of unaker for Wedgwood at vast expense (more than £50,000 today), which was then used for the production of encaustic decoration and later, he claimed, for the development of his jasperware body. The Parkers were enthusiastic customers of Wedgwood, but it is not known which family member purchased the encaustic vases at Saltram. In 1775 Montagu Edmund Parker purchased ‘urns’ from Wedgwood & Bentley in London. The Wedgwood archives contain a letter written by him on 4 April 1775 from his home, Whiteway, to “Mr. Bentley” at Wedgwood’s Warehouse in Greek Street, London, beginning: ‘On your telling me that you had sent the Urns, into the Country according to the Direction given you, I was not, as you may suppose, a little disappointed in not finding them here on my arrival.’ Theresa Parker also refers to similar objects in a letter to her brother on 24 August 1775: ‘I have just been ornamenting a glass case you have seen in my Dressing Room with China. The principal shelf with the only China that deserved to be called ornamental I mean the Biscuit, and the others with figures of the same sort of material, which confirms my opinion in favour of the French, the lower shelf being the unglazed Dresden Dogs hunting stags and Bears, etc. not bad and the Upper Row Chinese Models – very bad, but not bad of their kind. I think I also I may place some of the Wedgewoods best unglazed Black Ware, for that may bear a Comparison with the French.’
Provenance
Transferred to The National Trust as part of the endowment of Montagu Brownlow Parker (1878-1962),5th Earl of Morley.
Makers and roles
probably Wedgwood, potter
References
Bernard de Montfaucon, 1719, L’antiquité expliquée, et représentée en figures, published in 1719, Vol. I (plate II, plate 209, no. 3), R. Ruthie Dibble and Joseph Mizhakii Zordan, "Cherokee Unaker, British Ceramics, and Productions of Whiteness in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Worlds", British Art Studies,, Issue 21, https://dx.doi.org/10.17658/ issn.2058-5462/issue-21/dibblezordan ; Reilly, 1995, Wedgwood the New Illustrated Dictionary,, p. 103; A catalogue of cameos, intaglios, medals, busts, small statutes, and bas-reliefs; with a general account of vases and other ornaments after the antique, made by Wedgwood and Bentley; and sold at their rooms in Great Newport-Street, London, The second edition, with additions. 1774 : Wedgwood and Bentley : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive; Mallet, John. Wedgwood’s Early Vases, Country Life, 9 June 1966