Vase

Wedgwood

About 1820

  • Titles Vase (Descriptive)
  • Artist Wedgwood, England, est. 1759
  • Medium stoneware (jasperware)
  • Dimensions 3 x 2 1/2 in. Diam. (7.6 x 6.4 cm)
  • 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.234.2018
  • Work Type vase
  • Classification Containers

See More of the Collection

Infant Hercules, Royal Prussian Iron Foundries, cast iron
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.
Small brown stoneware jug of bottle shape on slightly flared foot, the body incised with a diamond pattern, the neck turned, with large loop handle, set with silver mounts on foot and neck forming a hinged lid (possibly of later date)
Oval medallion with profile portrait of Jean-Francois Marmontel (1723-1799), French writer and dramatist, born in the Limousin region (noe Haute Vienne). Educated at the Jesuit college at Mauriac. Marmontel became a teacher of philosophy at the Bernardine seminary at Toulouse. He attracted the notice of Voltaire, who advised him to go to Paris where he arrived in 1745. A tragedy produced in 1747 at once gave him celebrity. An introduction to Madame de Pompadour brought him the place of secretary to her brother, the Marquis de Marigny. Marmontel frequented the salon of Madame Geoffrin, and after the death of his friend, Boissy, he was given the Mercure de France. After a great deal of opposition Marmontel was elected to the Academy in 1763, and in 1783 was appointed Secretary and historiographer of France. He retired to Normandy at the outbreak of the revolution, dying there in 1799. This model comes from an unsigned engraving dated 1765