Current Location: Gallery 27 (Glaisher)
Maker(s)
Pottery:
Conrade Pottery
Painter:
Lefebvre, Denis
Entities
Categories
Description
Baluster vase and cover of tin-glazed earthenware painted in polychrome with a scene from the story of Samson and Delilah, Signed and dated DLF/1644
Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed off-white on the exterior, and more thinly and unevenly on the interior; base unglazed except for a few small dribbles. The glaze on the interior is tinged with green, and the glaze under the cover has crawled in two places. The vase is painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, beige, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white high-temperature colours. Baluster-shaped with octagonal lower part, and octagonal cover, domed in the centre, and surmounted by a cone-shaped finial which is a replacement in hard-paste porcelain held on by a dowel. The sides are decorated with a continuous scene of Samson and Delilah with in the background, a lake (or the sea), buildings on islands or the shore, and distant mountains. Samson with the ass's jawbone in one hand, lies asleep against the knees of Delilah, who holds a pair of scissors, and has already cut off some of his hair. Behind her are five Phillistines dressed in Roman style armour, one holding a rope to bind Samson. On the right there are two columns and a tent, and on the left, a column and behind it in the distance, a troop of soldiers. On the other side there is a standing soldier on the extreme left, some armour on the ground, and a man to its right pointing towards it. Further to the right are two standing soldiers, one resting his arm on a shield. Behind him are three tents. On the ground to the right of the man wth the shield, there is a stone block inscribed 'DL(joined) F/1644'. The cover is decorated with blue waves on which there is a mermaid holding a torch, a triton, Neptune reclining on a fish with a putto in front of hime, shells, and a large fish. The finial is blue with remnants of gilding.
Notes
History note: An unidentified house sale in Norfolk; Mr Wordingham of Norwich, by whom brought to Dr J.W.L. Glaisher in Cambridge on 17 June 1920, and sold to him for £25.
Legal notes
Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest
The knob on the cover is a replacement made of Chinese porcelain.
People, subjects and objects depicted
Components of the work
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( blue, green, yellow, orange, beige, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white)
Knob
composed of
hard-paste porcelain
Body And Cover
composed of
tin-glaze
earthenware
Rim
Diameter 12.4 cm
Base
Diameter 16.5 cm
Whole Over Finial
Height 45 cm
Body
Techniques used in production
Tin-glazing
Inscription or legends present
Inscription present: the L is written over the D
- Text: DL.F/1644
- Location: On stone in foreground
- Method of creation: Painted in dark manganese-purple
- Type: Mark
References and bibliographic entries
Identification numbers
Accession number: C.2314 & A-1928
Primary reference Number: 73338
Old object number: 4172
Stable URI
Audit data
Created: Saturday 6 August 2011
Updated: Tuesday 6 May 2025
Last processed: Tuesday 15 July 2025
Associated departments & institutions
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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