Description:
Black basalt was a popular style of English neo-classical style stoneware in the late 18th- early 19th century. Basalt was an imitation of the naturally occuring basalt rock found in Egyptian sculpture. Josiah Wedgwood and his competitors created basalt objects in ornamental vases and tea wares. Supposedly women liked how the black ceramic showed off the whiteness of their hands. This small punch bowl (larger than a waste bowl for a tea set) is a more unusual form. Circular thrown and turned black basalt punch bowl with appliedand turned foot rim, interior is completely smooth, exterior is ornaments with applied sprig moldings of 1) classically draped woman seated on a klismos chair holding a cupid, 2) a classically draped woman holding a liberty cap on a staff addressing two women and a man (this is an allegorical representation of France holding a staff with the revolutionary Phrygian cap, attended by Peace, Art, and Labor), 3) a classically draped, crying woman seated under a tree attended by a dog, 4) a peasant farmer boy? seated under a tree with a dog, 5) a classically draped woman standing next to an obelisk with an urn, 6) a classically draped woman standing next to an urn on a plinth draped with a garland with a quiver of arrows and a shield on the ground, the base of the bowl has been fluted with an engine turning lathe.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2013.40.2 |
