Vase

Designed by Courtney Lindsay, Wedgwood

About 1901

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Oval basalt medallion with profile portrait of Alexander the Great (356-323BC) facing right within a self framed border. Alexander was a Greek soldier, son of Philip of Macedon, born in Pella, and educated by Aristotle. At an early age he showed military talent of a high order, crossing the Hellespont in 334 to defeat a Persian army led by Darius. He consolidated this victory by occupying Palestine, marching thence to Egypt where he was hailed as a deliverer from Persian tyranny. He founded Alexandria in 331 B.C., and again defeated Darius in the same year. By 329 he had reached the river of Jaxartes, and in 328 subdued the whole of Sogdiana. In 326 he attempted the conquest of India, establishing Greek colonies in the Punjab, and bringing Greek influence to the art in the East, Returning to Babylon he began to plan for further conquests, but was taken ill after a banquet and died eleven days later. His body deposited in Alexandria in a soldiers coffin.
Cupid, Royal Prussian Iron Foundry, Gleiwitz, cast iron
Copy of the Roman glass Portland Vase (now in the British Museum) in miniature in solid black jasper with molded relief decoration, the two-handled vase in the shape of an amphora, one side shows on the left the image of a nude male emerging from an architectural structure and grasping the arm of a recumbent, draped female figure holding a sea serpent, above her is a flying cupid holding his bow and arrows, to the right is a tree and a nude male figure resting his right leg on the stump, his chin in his right hand, which is resting on his knee; on the other side left is a draped male figure seated on a rocky structure next to a column, he looks over his shoulder to his left at a central figure, a draped, recumbent female, lying on the rocky base, looking slightly left and with her right arm reaching over her head, behind her and to the right is the figure of a draped seated male looking over his right shoulder at the central figure; underneath each handle is a bearded mask; the base with the image of a cloaked figure, head lowered, wearing a wrapped headdress, with right arm raised to face, in the background foliage.
Molded figure of a shepherd standing in full figure on a small square base highlighted with a brown band and a mounded bit of grass with a brown stump for support, the figure wears yellow britches and a striped vest with pink-brown coat and black hat, over his right shoulder he carries a yellowish sheep with hobbled feet.