Bowls

Wedgwood

  • Titles Bowls (Descriptive)
  • Artist Wedgwood, England, est. 1759
  • Medium Queen's ware
  • Credit Line Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art; The Buten Wedgwood Collection, gift through the Wedgwood Society of New York , AFI.4173.2008.1-.2
  • Object Name bowls
  • Classification Containers

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Set of four, tall, sterling silver candlesticks architectural in form and neo-Gothic/neoclassical in style, each with a large, square base decorated with a diaper pattern within which are stylized flowers raised against a stippled ground, the corners are covered with upwardly scrolling acanthus leaves; from the base the stick rests on a fluted foot upon which sits a square pedestal from which extends the actual stick, which is composed of two slender columns at each edge with acanthus leaves at top, all bound by three sets of three bands each; between the columns are quatrefoils; the finial is in the form of a footed urn, the foot with four individual trefoils between acanthus leaves, the urn is also decorated with trefoils and stylized acanthus leaves, and holds a square, removable bobeche with pierced corners and scrollwork; on three of the four bobeches is an engraved crest: an eagle with outstretched wings atop a crown set with feathers.
Long rectangular inkwell of cast iron, the base enclosed by a row of alternating Gothic-style ornaments—a fluted column with a leafy element on top and a shield with Gothic tracery—on either side an outwardly scrolling handle comprised of foliate motifs, the central inkwell with on either side two bulbous cut glass containers with cast iron covers that are decorated in a stylized organic pattern, the finials in the form of stylized leaves, in the middle a cast iron container with tapered, fluted sides and a flat cover similar to the other two and decorated with stylized organic motifs, with same leaf finial.
Round blue jasper medallion with white relief profile portrait of Moliere (1622-1673) facing left. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, who took the stage name of Moliere, was born in Paris, the son of an upholsterer, who was also valet-de-chambre to Louis XIII. He studied under the Jesuits at the College de Clermont. In 1641 Moliere succeeded his father as the King's valet, but soon abandoned the appointment for the stage, joining a company of strolling players. For a time he came under the patronage of the Prince de Conti, and the King's brother, the duc d'Orleans. He first played before the King in 1658. In the following year his genius as a comic dramatist asserted itself, and the well known comedies began to flow from his pen. In 1665 Louis XIV adopted Moliere's troupe of players as his own, giving its director a pension of a thousand livres. His last play was the Malade Imaginaire. Moliere was ill when it was played, and the exertion produced a haemorrhage from which he died a few hours later.
Large rectangular tablet of white jasper with olive green jasper dip and molded and applied relief decoration of white jasper, the scene a "Sacrifice to Love" in which a small winged Cupid stands atop a pedestal draped with garlands beneath a temple while a procession of figures leads a sacrificial bull to him, to the right of the processional stands a small piper in front of a tree, a man kneels to reach a basket of flowers while behind him an altar burns, to the far right stands the figure of a draped female holding a bird aloft on her finger while a small Putti holding a floral wreath looks on.