Skip to main content

Cup and saucer: C.69 & A-1950

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Factory: Doccia Porcelain Factory

Entities

Categories

Description

Porcelain, moulded with relief decoration, painted in enamels and gilt

Creamy-white porcelain, moulded with relief decoration on the exterior of cup and interior of saucer, painted overglaze in polychrome enamels, and gilt. The cup stands on a narrow footring. It has deep sloping sides, a slightly everted rim, and a handle formed by two entwined stems. The circular saucer is concave and stands on a footring. The exterior of the cup is decorated in relief with Apollo in the chariot of the Sun, travelling leftwards towards a small obelisk on a rectangular pedestal with a hound lying to its right. Further to the left, winged female figure reclines on the ground and a male figure holding a green snake, and wrapped in a billowing yellow cloak strides towards the right. One of the handle stems is enamelled green. Inside there is a central sprig, and at the top of the sides three sprigs, all painted in gold. A gold band encircles the rim and the footring. The saucer is decorated in relief with four cartouches containing shells from which are suspended four swags of flowers and foliage, surrounding four small floral sprigs in the middle, all painted in polychrome and gilded. The edge is encircled by a dentilated gold band.

Notes

History note: Unknown before donor, Mrs W.D. (Frances Louisa) Dickson

Legal notes

Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson

Place(s) associated

  • Doccia ⪼ Tuscany ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1950-09) by Dickson, W. D. (Frances Louisa), Mrs

Dating

19th Century, Late#
Circa 1870 CE - 1880 CE

Note

The the crowned N mark used porcelain from the Royal Manufactory in Naples, was adopted by Doccia in a slightly different form in the last third of the 19th century. It was used on relief-moulded wares in 18th century style, described as 'Capodimonte'. This cup and saucer were attributed to Capodimonte on accession, probably because of their similarity to a set attributed to Capodimonte by Hannover in 1925 (see Documentation) but they were reattributed to Doccia by Arthur Lane in August 1962. In his book on Italian Porcelain (1954) Lane explained the misconceptions about their precursors. The 18th century examples were not made at Capodimonte, but at Doccia and were described as having 'bassorilievo istoriati' (stories in low relief) because of the stories from mythological mythology portrayed in the reliefs. Apollo in the Chariot of the Sun on this cup was probably derived from the illustration in Abbé Banier's translation of Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', 1732, vol I, p. 121.

School or Style

Baroque

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamel ( blue, green, yellow, dark pink, dark purplish-puce, red, brown, and black) gold
Saucer Diameter 14.3 cm Height 2.4 cm
Cup Diameter 8.5 cm Height 7.5 cm Width 10.8 cm
Both Parts

Materials used in production

clear Glaze
Porcelain

Techniques used in production

Glazing

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: N below a crown
  • Location: On base of saucer
  • Method of creation: Printed in blue overglalze
  • Type: Factory mark
  • Text: Capodimonte [in red ink] deleted with line over which DOCCIA [in black ink] and below, late 19th [in pencil]
  • Location: On base of cup
  • Method of creation: Hand-written in red and black ink and pencil
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.69 & A-1950
Primary reference Number: 206735
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 25 August 2015 Updated: Tuesday 23 May 2017 Last processed: Thursday 7 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) "Cup and saucer" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/206735 Accessed: 2024-11-21 20:09:16

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/206735 |title=Cup and saucer |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 20:09:16|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-206735

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...