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New York Ceramics Fair on DevenishGroup.com

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:44:12 +0000

For the full write-up click HERE for a link to www.devenishgroup.com

American Ceramic Circle (ACC) and Americana Week in New York

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:28:19 +0000

Courtesy of the ACC “Adrienne Spinozzi, ACC member and Research Associate in the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has very kindly put together a listing of ceramics-related exhibitions, gallery shows, and installations on view in New York during January. Since many of us travel to New York for Antiques Week, Adrienne felt that this listing might help us see more fabulous ceramics while we’re there.”
Thank YOU Adrienne, it’s a great time to be in New York and this is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in Ceramics (with a capital C).

Study Day at The Wallace Collection with Dame Rosalind Savill

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:49:25 +0000

This morning, in trying to upload some pictures of my Christmas tree to Facebook I discovered a trove of lost images from the Sèvres study day I attended October 3. Wallace Director Dame Rosalind Savill was kind enough to share a parting gift with a small group in her office on the second floor at Hertford House. Though I secretly wished we would have a hands on with the Catherine II wine cooler I was so happy and grateful for the opportunity to be there and take part in this fantastic opportunity. Below find a link to some of the best images I was able to capture. Many of the pieces had severe condition issues, obviously and there was a nice 19th century overpainted bleu celeste square dish, some new pieces and some personal pieces from Dame Savill herself. My favorite was the table sugar bowl above, I’ll have to research those some other day, the best I can come up with today is from Kit Maxwell’s French Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century where he attributes the decoration to “possibly” Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand and about 1752. A link to the object on the V&A website here.

Sevres and Wedgwood at the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs Paris

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:18:16 +0100

Last week I had the pleasure of my first visit to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, part of the Louvre complex and housing a wonderful collection of pottery and porcelain. A fantastic fragment caught my eye, a trial piece of Sèvres hard paste porcelain imitating Wedgwood jasperware and depicting Bachantes emerging from gorgeously translucent rinceau and serving wine to thirsty leopards, a figure of Athena within a reserve.
This fragment relates to three guéridons, one in Madrid with the Royal Collection at the Palacio Real, another in Venice at the Museo Correr and the third, (referred to as a sample) in Paris at Sèvres - Cité de la Céramique. I was fortunate enough to see the Paris example last year when it was on exhibit in Berlin at the Ephraim-Palais as part of the “Fascination of Fragility” exhibition commemorating the 300th anniversary of Meissen.
The central plaque depicts a very popular motif at Sèvres from that period, Telemachus, son of Odysseus, in the garden of Calypso attended by Athena in the guise of Mentor. “Les Aventures de Télémaque” by François Fénelon (1651-1715), first published in 1699 relating the story from the Odyssey as a veiled attack on absolute monarchy. Note that the storming of the Bastille in Paris was July 14 1789 (222 years ago today) commonly referred to as the start of the end.
The guéridon is composed of one central round plaque with a diameter of 44 cm and surrounded by a porcelain ring of 6 cm, the overall diameter is 89 cm. The difficulty at Sèvres was to imitate Wedgwood jasperware, an earthenware body in hard paste porcelain. Wax reliefs were created, then metal moulds produced which were filled with layers of porcelain slip. First white, then blue followed by white once more. The effect was rather difficult to achieve but the final product speaks for itself. The central plaque is a tour de force of undercutting and texture, a great skill honed over years of Sèvres biscuit production and the diaphanous rinceau, especially evident in the fragment, on par with some of Wedgwood’s greatest work. The “sample” guéridon is not as finely worked on the border but that may have to do with the difficulty encountered working on such a massive scale.

The Wark Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain at the Cummer

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:27:46 +0100

On Sunday June 12th I enjoyed my first visit to The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville Florida to see the reinstallation of the Ralph H. and Constance I. Wark Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain. The collection came back on view this past May and features more than 700 choice examples of Meissen donated to the Cummer by siblings Ralph and Constance Wark, residents of St. Augustine, in 1965. The Wark Collection is one of the most important collections of early Meissen tableware in the world and its extensively researched and beautiful catalog was just published by Dr. Ulrich Pietsch, Director, Porcelain Collection, State Art Collection in Dresden - the birthplace of Meissen.
The new gallery consists mostly of cases with wall mounted brackets to create harmonious displays of porcelain in a style that was popular in 18th century. The “schloss look” using lucite rather than ornately carved and gilt wooden brackets creating an almost invisible suspension for the precious objects. The pieces are exhibited in chronological order coordinated by color, decoration and form. The balance achieved is very encouraging and displays the pieces to great advantage. My only regret is that the lighting is exclusively from above and can create shadows. Porcelain, unlike many other fine and decorative arts is not affected by bright light and can be shown off to great advantage by spots and up-lighting..
The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens was purpose built on the site of the home of Arthur and Ninah Cummer and opened to the public in 1961. Ralph Wark bought his first piece of Meissen Porcelain in 1922 and developed the collection in the years between the wars, being forced to leave it in storage in Hamburg during the second world war. In 1945, the collection was sent to the US onboard an American cargo ship to be reunited with Wark in North Carolina. The Warks continued to add complimentary pieces purchased from a select group of dealers, in particular Elfriede Langeloh in Cologne from who they acquired nearly 40 percent of the collection. Additional purchases at auction helped develop the collection to what it is today.
In 1923, Ralph Wark purchased a tea canister in Paris with exceptionally high-quality chinoiseries by Horoldt. Twenty-seven years later the Queen Marie of Hanover coffee and tea service came to auction, an almost complete service missing its tea canister which turned out to be Wark’s Paris purchase.
In 1925 when an important Berlin collection was dispersed, Ralph Wark did not have the $5,500 needed to buy a stunning garniture of five miniature vases and covers by the master Horoldt. Forty-seven years later, Wark was finally able to acquire the garniture but had to pay over $82,500 for it.
Meissen porcelain of 1710-1760 spans the period when Europeans first discovered the ability to produce true porcelain in the style of the Chinese and further developed distinctive European decorative styles and shapes in porcelain. The efforts at Meissen would reinvent the ancient art for 18th century audiences and change the eating and drinking habits of the western world. Johann Freidrich Böttger under the auspices of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, is credited with the discovery of porcelain and the establishment of the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory in the Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen, just outside of Dresden.
Focusing mainly on tablewares, the Wark collection contains representative examples of all the early styles and decorations. Every development, from the earliest red clay Böttger stoneware to the underglaze blue, chinoiserie, kakiemon, polychrome enameled, gilt and molded pieces is included in the collection. I would highly recommend a visit to Jacksonville for this great collection to all enthusiasts of European Porcelain and History in general.
cross posted from original post on DevenishGroup.com

Porcelain from the Royal Collection used at the US State Banquet

Wed, 25 May 2011 09:21:26 +0100

From The Official Website of the British Monarchy:
“Information about silver and service used at the US State Banquet at Buckingham Palace on 24 May 2011.   China  Sweet plates - V R Minton Made for Queen Victoria 1876.   Fruit service - Tournai French dessert service 1787-1789.   Green sevre(sic)- soft paste porcelain made for Louis XVI (behind top table) 1790s.   Rockingham (from the Rockingham works in Yorkshire) dessert service made for William IV 1830 (first used on Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838)”
Imagine my excitement upon seeing the words State Banquet. I had heard that the old Sèvres was used for State occasions and I was so pleased to read the details, noted above, on The Official Website of the British Monarchy (thanks to twitter mind you). A few years back during the Sèvres exhibit at the Queen’s Gallery a number of pieces from the green ground service were on view and frankly, it paled in comparison, it’s never been one of my favorites. I find green to be generally displeasing and it was developed after my favorite era at Sèvres so I’ve never paid much attention to it. Reading Joanna Gwilt’s excerpt from the catalogue and going through those pages in the magnum opus gives me a renewed interest and newfound appreciation for this beautiful service. Not to say that I won’t wrinkle my nose next time I see a bit of green ground but I’m always happy to see quality and craftsmanship regardless of the color palate.
In researching this entry I ran across a great PDF from The Royal Collection Trust. “A State Banquet at Buckingham Palace... Porcelain from the Royal Collection” with some images of the un-photographable pieces mentioned above. I leave you with some images I was able to take in Belgium of their part of the Tournai porcelain service used at last night’s banquet.

Lempertz to sell some lovely Meissen in May

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:18:20 +0100

Some wonderful Meissen is up for sale in Cologne on May 13. Nearly 100 lots of quality Meissen and then some. Porcelain from most of the major German manufactories and a sprinkle of faience for good measure. There are a large number of lots including important porcelain catalogues and reference works to boot. One of the stars of the sale - this wonderful pair of Pilgrim figures from Meissen c.1741 estimated at $115,000-$130,000.