vase

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Object Type: vase
Museum number: 1890,0724.1
Description: Vase and cover; hard-paste porcelain; later cover of bone china; hexagonal; decorated with applied leaves and flowers, top of each branch broken off, probably in firing; cover surmounted by knop of pomegranate form; four panels of landscape scenes, one with well, grouped in twos and painted puce and blue, alternate with panel of birds in landscapes; each panel separated from next by gilt leaf trail entwined around two lines; stylised gilt ornament around top of vase and on neck; cover decorated with coloured flying bird in each panel, and green and pink finial; gilt diaper and stylised leaf ornament; unmarked.
Producer name: Factory of: Bristol China Manufactory (vase); Factory of: Worcester Porcelain Factory (as Worcester Royal Porcelain Company; cover)
Production date: 1869 (cover); 1770 (vase; circa)
Production place: Factory in: Bristol (England) (vase); Factory in: Diglis (cover)
Materials: bone china; porcelain (hard-paste); gold
Technique: glazed; applied; painted; gilded
Dimensions: Height: 42 centimetres (with cover); Height: 30.70 centimetres
Curator's comments: Dawson 1987 The cover, according to a manuscript label stuck to it, was 'copied from a similar one belonging to a Bristol Vase of Mr. F. Fry's Bristol' and 'was made at Worcester in 1869'. The elaborate shape and extensive painted decoration are perhaps an (unsuccessful) attempt to imitate contemporary Worcester porcelain vases. The painting is somewhat crudely executed in a rather muddy palette. Pieces such as this were intended to form part of a garniture of three, five or seven vases for a mantelpiece or commode. The scene depicting a well is perhaps distantly related to a figure scene known as 'the Draw Well' engraved by Robert Hancock, while the other landscape scenes painted in 'sticky' overglaze colours, are of a conventional character.
Bibliographic references: Owen 1873 / Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol (250-1; fig. 95); Hobson 1904 / A Guide to the English Pottery and Porcelain in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities (fig. 157); Hobson 1905 / Catalogue of the collection of English Porcelain in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum. (VIII.18); Rackham 1914 / Contributions to the Study of English Porcelain (p. 107); Hannover 1925 / Pottery & Porcelain, a Handbook for Collectors III European Porcelain (fig. 841); Hurlbutt 1928 / Bristol Porcelain (pl. 49a); Cooper 1970 / Bristol Porcelain Bicentenary Exhibition (15); Dawson 1987 / Rare and Documentary 18th Century English Porcelain from the British Museum (62)
Location: Not on display
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1987 Jun 10-Jun 15, London, International Ceramics Fair and Seminar Ltd, 'International Ceramics Fair and Seminar' 1970 May-Jun, Bristol City Art Gallery, 'Bristol Porcelain Bicentenary Exhibition 1770-1970', no. 15
Subjects: bird; flower; leaf; well; fruit; landscape
Acquisition name: Donated by: J E Nightingale
Acquisition date: 1890
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1890,0724.1

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