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A Grotto with Four Children representing the Four Seasons: C.3181-1928

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

A Grotto with Four Children representing the Four Seasons

Maker(s)

Factory: Frankenthal Porcelain Factory
Director: Hannong, Paul Anton
Modeller: Lanz, Johann Wilhelm

Entities

Categories

Description

Hard-paste porcelain, painted in enamels, and gilt. Four little children symbolizing the Four Seasons, seated round a grotto with a tree on top

Hard-paste porcelain, press-moulded, hand-modelled, and painted overglaze in turquoise-green, green, yellow, flesh-pink, puce, red, purple, reddish-brown, dark brown, and black enamels, and lightly gilt. The underside has eight supports radiating from the centre. The rounded square low mound base has a Rococo scrolled and frilled edge picked out in puce and gold, and rises up in the middle into a grotto with four brown rocky supports, and a slightly domed turquoise-green top on which is a double tree trunk whose roots extend over the top. The top of the base outside the grotto is turquoise-green. Four small nude children holding attributes of the Seasons are seated on rocks at the corners of the grotto: Spring, a boy with a basket of flowers on his knee; Summer, a girl holding an apple in her outstretched right hand and ? in her left, with two wheat-sheaves on the ground beside her; Autumn, a boy with dark brown hair holding a goblet in his left hand and a bunch of grapes in his right; Winter, a boy drawing a red-brown cloak over his head and warming his hands at a fire with yellow and red flames.

Notes

History note: Cyril Andrade, Duke Street, St James’s, London, from whom purchased on 10 September 1917 for £50 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Legal notes

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 21 cm
Height: 8 15/16 in
Width: 23.2 cm
Width: 9⅛ cm

Place(s) associated

  • Frankenthal ⪼ The Palatinate ⪼ Germany

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr

Dating

Paul Hannong Period
18th Century, third quarter
Circa 1757 CE - 1759 CE

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamel ( turquoise-green, green, yellow, flesh-pink, puce, red, purple, reddish-brown, dark brown, and black) gold

Materials used in production

Glaze
Hard-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Press-moulding : Hard-paste porcelain, press-moulded in parts and assembled, with hand-modelled details, glazed, and painted in turquoise-green, green, yellow, flesh-pink, puce, red, purple, reddish-brown, dark brown, and black enamels, and lightly gilt
Glazing

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: PH 6
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Impressed
  • Type: Factory mark
  • Text: rampant lion
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Painted underglaze in blue
  • Type: Factory mark

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.3181-1928
Primary reference Number: 140240
Old object number: 4228
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 8 May 2019 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) "A Grotto with Four Children representing the Four Seasons" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/140240 Accessed: 2024-11-02 20:15:59

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/140240 |title=A Grotto with Four Children representing the Four Seasons |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-02 20:15:59|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-140240

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