An intriguing English delftware vase has been shelved here and there for a number of years, but it has not been presented to observers and researchers in a definitive way. Beyond rarity, it has special merit among its genre companions because of both its profile and coloration. This “delft” is where a biscuit earthen body was given an opaque burnt tin dip that also contained raw glaze ingredients; it was then air dried and decorated in watercolor fashion with glaze-and-color mixed paints before final firing and fusing to set all the colors and glazes. Turned profiles and lively drawings provided the predominant decorations. Gilt and enamel were rarely applied, but many wall tiles in particular were transfer-printed with overglaze during late-production years.
Historically, English gentry, especially, imported elegant showpieces of oversize Chinese porcelain as well as Dutch pottery during the period surrounding the turn of the eighteenth century.[1] The largest ceramics were sought after more in England than Holland.[2] In retrospect this homeland custom was probably supported by the effusive practice of Queen Mary II (r. 1689–1694), who had colored “flower pots” installed such as those found “in ye chimney” at her residence.[3] These could well have been open urns to hold small ornamental trees in fireplaces during the summer. Direct influence came from her palatial surroundings while in Holland for eleven years.[4] Some time ago, the decorating of earlier European chambers with massed ceramics was scholarly interpreted based on an analysis of a 1697 inventory showing the later adoption of similar ostentatious formats at Kensington Palace in London.[5]
In keeping with commercial ventures that correspond to other high-value decorative items being imitated, it is reasonable that nearby pot makers understood the royal vogue and sought their own share of this continuing market for style by courting less affluent yet aspiring clients. Perhaps for practical reasons of manufacture and sale, scaled-down earthenware elements of the likely assembled porcelain garnitures, which often were grouped as three covered jars and two beakers for tall furniture or mantel, became standard forms for the resembling products.[6]
The small early-eighteenth-century delft vase at hand (fig. 1), a probable chimney-shelf component, shows a pointed ovoid baluster shape inverted to that of conventional Chinese porcelain; the highlight is its being thrown with a pronounced swollen girdle. Most likely it originally had a high-dome cover with ball finial on an extended stem. Other English pottery vases of this period also have not retained that probable completeness. The circular base and severely constricted shaft set it apart from Continental comparatives that predominantly have faceted, broader supports.[7]
Further, the inglaze blue-red-green palette featured here seems to be singular among later British as well as its own contemporary English pieces of associated outline, some of which are cited below for comparison.[8] In this primary instance, varied friezes that are separated by assorted line bands include flowerheads and birds amid profuse subsidiary star-bursts and quadruple dots; secondary themes by zone show stylized waves, cloud scrolls with cones, or a stiff pendant lappet-and-leaf chain.
Absent defining hollow ware oven wasters, it becomes necessary to extrapolate from other type sherds, remaining objects, and information sources in order to presume the local origin and date for this vase. Evidence from the popularity of its Chinese-inspired drawing leads to the first decade of the eighteenth century. Intensity of primary colors and their texture as well as handiwork at birds and scales while applying them closely relate it to a covered punch bowl dated 1705, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[9] The age range seems firm. Whereas I give precedence to London before Bristol in part for more prospective sales from the capital city, there is at present no certain discrimination to choose between these places at the understood time of this piece.
Within this family of effectively multicolored English vase offerings, which total relatively few, can be found such contrasts as classic bird or figural themes (fig. 2), white-splashed bleu persan (fig. 3), and patterns within a reserve ground (fig. 4). Another handful of comparable vases with only shades of blue in white bases also remains.[10]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are extended to Michael Archer and Jonathan Horne for sharing their thoughts. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Jonathan Horne, and the Museum of London kindly provided photographs.
Troy D. Chappell, Collector
