Description:
English creamware chamberstick with tortoiseshell decoration in green and brown, a style often associated with Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795) of Fenton Vivian, Staffordshire, but produced by many of the approximately 130 North Staffordshire contemporary potteries. However this form is later and more ornate; according to Jonathan Horne and other ceramic scholars, the date of this chamberstick is questionable. In the late 19th and early 20th century, typical 18th century Leeds Pottery creamwares were produced by members of the Senior family, primarily James "Wraith" Senior (c.1854-1909) who worked over time with his sons, George William (1882-1970) and James Jr. (d.1917), and his brother-in-law, potter John Thomas Morton (1875-1956). Morton was an apprentice to James Senior circa 1888-1895, and returned to work with the Seniors from 1907 to circa 1913 when he left to establish his own pottery; according to John Griffin, it is virtually impossible to distinguish between pieces made by Morton when potting on his own in Leeds (who also used the impressed "LEEDS POTTERY" mark before establishing a pottery at Airey Hill, Filey, in 1933) and those produced by the Senior brothers. James Senior made various types of pottery, including slipware and tiles, at different sites until sometime between 1888 and 1895, when he started producing creamwares in an 18th century style, many based on the products and some using the same molds from the Leeds factory of Hartley, Greens & Co.; the Seniors also produced other pieces, particularly pierced wares which were far more elaborate than those produced by Hartley, Greens & Co. Next to the Wedgwood factory, Hartley, Greens & Co. was one of the most successful of the English creamware potteries established in the 18th century, which first published its catalogue or pattern books in 1783 and continued printing them periodically until 1814, with some wares impressed "LEEDS POTTERY." The Senior reproductions often bear that same original impressed "LEEDS POTTERY" mark; the Senior's quality is often more thickly potted than the original, and the glaze often greyer and more thickly applied, which then pooled (often with a green tone) with a very distinct crackled glaze. However, their wares can also be of such high quality that they can be mistaken for the work of earlier factories. Much of the Senior's production was marketed through an antique dealer, William Wood Slee of 30 Duncan Street, Leeds, who claimed to be the manufacturer of "Reproductions of Leeds Pottery." Although it is not known for how many years Slee published a catalogue, the Leeds Museum and Galleries has a copy of an undated Slee catalogue and 1913 price list, in which he states: "The manufacture of Leeds Pottery revived in 1888 by W. W. Slee, employing workmen and using many of the original moulds and patterns obtained from old works." In fact it is now generally believed that he was only selling George Senior's wares. Interestingly, the Slee catalogue also shows covered chestnut bowls, figs. 615, which are not in the original Hartley, Greens & Co. catalogues, but do appear in Josiah Wedgwood's early catalogues as well as the Wedgwood Company's 1920 catalogue that illustrated creamware identical to examples found in its late 18th century catalogues. This chamberstick has a bulbous-shaped candle holder with a shell-lined scalloped edge, foliate reliefs around the base of the holder and around the holder in the well of the slightly domed pan; an openwork or pierced pattern around the curvature; and a scalloped pan edge with alternating tassel and scrolled foliate relief decoration. The molded, looping handle has two grooves the length of each side, terminating on the interior of the pan with a molded face surrounded by the same foliate design. This chamberstick appears similar to #553 in the 1913 Slee catalogue.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.007 |
