Images(10)

Portland Vase

Dateca. 1790

Artist/Maker Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795)

Maker Wedgwood (Est. 1759)

OriginEngland, Staffordshire

MediumStoneware, unglazed, black with white clay

DimensionsOH: 9 3/4" OW: 7" Diam. (Base): 5"

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael V. Jennings

Object number1991-160

DescriptionA two-handled vase of truncated amphora form. The base of the first century Roman glass vase from which it was copied was broken at some point and repaired with a glass cameo disc cut from a larger panel. While Wedgwood realized that the form of the vase was not a total aesthetic success, he nevertheless copied the original shape exactly. Wedgwood used jasperware, unglazed stoneware, to simulate the cameo glass of the original. To create the illusion of translucency on portions of the applied decoration he used painted-on black slip. The sides of the base beneath the handles have scenes of classical figures, sprig molded in white jasper and applied to the black jasper body. Dozens of scholars have speculated about the identity of the figures. Current theory is that the figures represent an allegory of the Trojan War and the founding of Rome, and (since it was made during the reign of Caesar Augustus) that it celebrates the Augustan age of Rome. (See "The Interpretation of the Scenes," by Kenneth Painter and David Whitehouse, pp. 130-136, and appendix V, pp. 172-188, JOURNAL OF GLASS STUDIES, CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS, Vol. 32, 1990). At the base of each handle is a bearded mask, possibly an allusion to Capricorn, and the time in September when Augustus was born. The base is an applied disc. As on the original, where a portion of a larger scene was cut out and applied to repair the base. The base has a close-up of a man in a hood holding his finger to his mouth in puzzlement; it is considered to represent Paris pondering the three goddesses to bestow the golden apple upon the most fair. His judgment led to the Trojan War, so the image on the base relates to the allegorical themes on the sides. The Wedgwood factory made subsequent editions of the Portland, including versions with draped figures in the Victorian period, and a commemorative one in 1990, but they were of inferior quality to the first edition.
MarkingsPencil mark of numeral 1 on base. Wedgwood is said to have numbered most of the first edition copies with a manganese pencil, but others are marked inside the lip. The first edition vases were not marked with impressed Wedgwood mark.
ProvenanceOne of 14 first edition Portland vases purchased in 1829 by glass manufacturer Apsley Pellatt from the Wedgwood Warehouse in York Street, St. James Square, London. In the Holt Collection, then purchased by Alfred Spero and exhibited at the Birmingham Museum, England, until 1954, where it was purchased by G. Duff-Dunbar of Ackergill Tower, Wick, Caithness, Scotland. In 1961 Melony M. Delhom of Chicago bought the vase. She sold it to Doctors Harold and Caroline Brown of Lombard, Illinois, who lent the vase to The Smithsonian Institution, where it was exhibited from 1972 until 1990. Purchase from Dr. and Dr. Brown by antiques dealer Lindsay Grigsby who is married to their daughter, Leslie.

Exhibition(s)