Vase and Cover
Description
Marked in puce under the base, “Royal Worcester England”; with two further marks, “Rd No 437171” and “2340”
The two-handled vase is painted dark blue with reserved white and gilded highlights. The body is modelled at its base with an Acanthus calyx and painted on the front with a landscape within a gilt, oval vine surround. The back is decorated with a gilded vine festoon with relief veins to the leaves.
The Worcester Royal Porcelain Company was established in 1862 but had a much longer lineage, tracing its origins to the Worcester Porcelain Company, which was founded in 1751 by Dr John Wall. The new company consciously raised the artistic standards of its wares and concentrated on ornamental vases and figures modelled by James Hadley (1837–1903).
This vase, broken and repaired though it is, is a fine example of the firm’s output. Distinctly conservative, historicist even, the design owes much to the sorts of ornamental vases produced at the French royal factory of Sèvres during the 1760s and 1770s. The crisp modelling, the landscape painting, the rich blue ground, and the gilding, all seek to emulate Sèvres, although the elaborate tendril-like double handles reflect early 19th-century style too.
Sir D.J. Tata Collection
Collection
European Decorative Art
Object Type
Vase
Material
Bone china
Schools/Culture/Period
Royal Worcester
Technique
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Date
1905
Location
England
Dimension
Height: 38.5 cm