Description:
English creamware satyr mask wall pocket with tortoiseshell decoration in green, blue, and purple-brown, a style that seeks to imitate the natural hues and tones of tortoiseshell, which is often associated with Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795) of Fenton Vivian, Staffordshire, but was made in many of the approximately 130 North Staffordshire contemporary potteries. This wall pocket could be a late 19th-early 20th century Continental European or English reproduction of tortoiseshell ware because no other examples are known in this satyr mask form. The wall pocket is of a substantial size, and is very heavy; the clay walls are extremely thick and the molding is smooth, not thin and crisp as in the 18th century Staffordshire versions; and the lustrous glaze has a syrupy thickness that further obscures the molded features. However, according to Jonathan Horne (on January 23, 1995), this wall pocket has more in common with delft examples than Staffordshire creamware. It appears so crude that it could be right, and if so, definitely points to a link between Liverpool and Staffordshire potters. Flowers were commonly used room decorations in the 17th and 18th centuries, and were displayed in pockets, flower bricks, vases, pots, and bowls. Wall pockets, wall-mounted flower containers, first appeared in China during the seventeenth century, and reached their peak of popularity in the mid-eighteenth century in England, produced in delft, salt and lead-glazed earthenware, and porcelain. Sold in pairs, the three basic shapes, faces, balusters, and cornucopia, were made in asymmetrical shapes with right and left-handed examples with one curving to the right and one to the left, as well as identical forms. Usually constructed of press-molded fronts joined to a flat, slab back, wall pockets invariably included a pair of holes for hanging. This wall pocket is press-molded in a manner following the decoration, with the features of the cream face high-lighted in brown. The rim follows the shape of the decoration, with a center crown over the face. The back, which has a double arch top with some color, has two holes for hanging.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+57.183 |
