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Two-handled vase: C.36-1935

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Factory: Wedgwood, Josiah
Designer: Pacetti, Camillo

Entities

Categories

Description

Jasper, solid pale blue with white reliefs and serpents. Shape 266. Ovoid with gently curving shoulders, slender neck, flaring mouth and two high scroll handles inter-twined with serpents, standing on a circular foot on a square plinth. The sides of the plinth are decorated with a row of anthemions. The foot has an acanthus border and a row of beading round the junction of the stem and body, which has a calyx of laurel leaves. The body is decorated on one side with Thetis delivering Achilles to the Centaur, and on the other, with Achilles on the back of the Centaur (Chiron) hunting a Lion. The shoulder is decorated with a laurel wreath, on the neck there is a row of elongated anthemions and a band of guilloche ornament, and on the rim, a row of beading.

Notes

History note: Unknown before Louis Colville Gray Clarke MA

Legal notes

Given by L.C.G. Clarke MA

Measurements and weight

Base: 9.2 cm
Height: 34.2 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Etruria ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England
  • Rome ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1935-05-01) by Clarke, Louis Colville Gray

Dating

George III
Circa 1788 - 1800

Note

Camillo Pacetti (1758-1826) was engaged by Josiah Wedgwood in Rome from 1787 under Flaxman's supervision. He modelled six tablets illustrating the life of Achilles in 1788. A pen and wash drawing by Pacetti of Achilles on the back of Centaur hunting a Lion is in the Wedgwood Museum, Barlaston. The source of the design was a classical marble, the Luna Disc, of c. 800-400 BC in the Capitoline Museum. It shows the hero mounted on a female centaur which was altered into Chiron, Achilles' tutor. See Documentation.

This form was no. 266 in the Shape Book (54.80019? or 54.30019), and a jasper vase was illustrated in the 1787 Wedgwood Catalogue. It also appears in the 1888 Catalogue in Class XVIII, 'Vase with chariots in the/Clouds serpents round/handles'. See also the Shape Book watermarked 1794, rebound in 1916, no. 266. The snake handles could have been inspired by Urbino maiolica vases of the late sixteenth century.

School or Style

Neoclassical

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Reliefs

Materials used in production

Jasper ware

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Jasper, solid pale blue with white reliefs and serpents

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: WEDGWOOD
  • Location: On the base
  • Method of creation: Impressed
  • Type: Mark

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.36-1935
Primary reference Number: 11604
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 25 February 2020 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Two-handled vase" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/11604 Accessed: 2024-11-04 18:11:30

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