Shakespeare

Staffordshire

late 18th century

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Cast-iron paper clamp in the form of a raven's head with long beak (originally bronzed), detailed feathers, and beady glass eyes, in two pieces with a hinge and steel spring that opens the beak to hold paper.
Vase with cylindrical, slightly waisted form. The exterior is decorated with some indented bands that vary in width wrapped around the vase, mostly on the bottom half or near the lip of the vase. It has a mustard/tan body that is decorated with painterly brushes of brown and black, some with a veinlike design in them. Near the base and lip are bands of brown with a rougher texture. The bottom of the base is not glazed. The interior is decorated with a black and green irregular glaze.
Frieze tablet of solid light blue jasper with applied white jasper relief decoration featuring a plain column and small tree on the left and a column on the right, in between Achilles Delivered to Chiron by his mother Thetis, who hands the baby Achilles to the Centaur Chiron, and Achilles on Chiron's back, both holding weapons and hunting a lion, who has an arrow in its back, in a thin ground.
In the middle the Amazon Column, left a plant stand, and right a three-tiered fruit dish; in the upper left and right corners are supports for a balcony.