Three Reliefs

33.1104

Three Reliefs

33.1104

Description

Signed “gw”

Three oval cameo glass reliefs in dark blue, almost black plate overlaid with white opaque glass. The relief in the centre depicts the the Greek goddess Aphrodite floating in a turbulent sea, with rocks, seaweed, and shells in the foreground and with seagulls flying above. The other two are designed as seated and standing female classical figures.

This is a remarkable example of cameo glass, in which the plain dark glass is applied with a layer of white glass (in this case about 1 mm thick). The latter was then carefully and selectively engraved to reveal the contrasting dark glass below. This technique, brought to a high level of excellence in Roman times, was revived in the 19th century by the English firm of J. and J. Northwood, whose works included a copy of the Portland Vase. George Woodall (1850– 1925) and his brother Thomas were trained at the firm but by the 1870s had moved to the cameo workshop of Thomas Webb and Sons, another successful glass company based at Stourbridge in the West Midlands.The Woodall brothers combined wheel engraving with acid etching to produce an exceptional combination of fine definition and subtle surface texture. On the relief in the centre, this is shown to particularly telling effect in the waves and in the seagulls, where their contrast with the clouds behind produces a strong illusion of space and depth.
Woodall was clearly fascinated, obsessed even, by this subject and made a number of plates and other objects on the same theme. An almost identical plate to this was made in 1892 and is the main evidence for dating proposed here.The latter was described in the factory records as “white on blue on claret plaque”. The same triple-layered technique has presumably been used here, since the dark blue, almost black substratum becomes a deep ruby red when held up to the light. Thomas Webb’s price list records that the 1892 plate was retailed for £125 and that Woodall was paid the much lower sum of £42 for his work.
Sir D.J. Tata Collection

Collection

European Decorative Art

Object Type

Decorative Art Plaque

Material

Cameo glass

Schools/Culture/Period

--

Technique

Cameo glass

Date

c. 1892

Location

England

Dimension

height 4.8 cm