Pair of Vases

Lambeth, Royal Doulton

1902 - 1936

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Obverse: Bust in profile right.
Small, oval plaque (truncated at the lower edge) of white jasper with green jasper dip and white relief decoration of the Muse Urania who presided over astronomy, and often holds a compass used by astronomers in her hand, standing in full figure next to a pedestal with a globe at her feet.
Covered sugar bowl of buff-colored caneware with applied dark gray-green stoneware relief decoration in the Darwin pattern, the body with a design of vertical fern fronds, alternating larger and smaller, and whorls of the marsh plant mare's tail, below the lip a band with the stem of the same plant, the conforming cover similarly decorated with button finial.
Oval black basalt medallion with relief portrait of George III (1738-1820) facing left, George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Baptized George Frederick William, Son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died in 1751 and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He was unable to read English until the age of eleven but when his accession took place in 1760 he at once made a favourable impression as an English-born prince. In July 1761, his forthcoming marriage to Princess Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz was announced and their coronation took plate later that year. His political influence did much to create the circumstances which culminated in the American War of Independence. In 1788 the first signs of a mental aberration from which he was later to suffer became apparent. In 1809 his health broke down irretrievably, so his eldest son (later George IV) became Prince Regent in 1810. George III did not recover his faculties and died in 1820 after surviving several assassination attempts.