This is a very rare and stunning vase with cover made by Chelsea-Derby in 1783-1784. The pear-shaped vase stands on a square foot and has two handles with moulded floral chains, and a pointed cover. Set in a gilt striped ground with palmette borders, one side bears a fine landscape by Zachariah Boreman; the other the figure of a muse inscribed HISTORY by Richard Askew.
The Derby Porcelain factory has its roots in the late 1740s, when Andrew Planché, a Walloon Huguenot refugee, started making simple porcelain toys shaped like animals in his back yard. In 1756 Staffordshire enameller William Duysbury and banker John Heath started a new porcelain factory with Planché and this was to grow out to the largest factory of its time, buying up the bankrupted Chelsea and Bow factories, as well as the stock of several other workshops including that of James Giles. The combination of various traditions, porcelain making skills and sophisticated clients enabled Duesbury to create one of the best porcelain factories of the 18th and 19th Centuries, which after many ups and downs is still operative today. The period between the purchase of the Chelsea factory in 1770 and ca 1784 is called the Chelsea-Derby era, when many items were created in Derby and decorated in Chelsea. The purchase of Chelsea not only brought in many moulds to Derby, but, importantly, some highly skilled artists, among whom were Zachariah Boreman and Richard Askew.
Zachariah Boreman became one of the most celebrated painters at Derby. Born in London in 1738, he arrived at Derby around 1774 after working at Chelsea, and remained until 1794, when he left in frustration with Michael Kean, the owner. Even though Boreman became one of the prime landscape painters at Derby, Kean would not pay him more and this caused Boreman to go back to London and work for the Simms decorating studio until his death in 1810. Boreman was known as a highly respected and likable person, and he became famous for his fine landscapes. His style was most probably influenced by Paul Sandby, the chief drawing instructor at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. His little landscapes are restrained, with often muted brown and green shades; in Boreman's landscapes, less is more although his drawing and stippled brush style is extraordinarily detailed.
Richard Askew (ca 1730-1798) was another one of the famous artists who came from Chelsea and then moved to Derby in about 1772. He didn't only work for Chelsea and Derby, but also worked on a freelance basis for many others, and there is evidence that he advertised himself all over Britain and Ireland as a miniature painter. In 1781 Askew returned to London, and later also worked in Birmingham. Askew became known for his many paintings of figures such as muses and, in particular, cherubs. His paintings are usually in the pink tint you can see on this beautiful vase, and they are easily recognisable by their heavy limbs and jowls. This vase would probably have belonged to a garniture of various vases, each with a different muse. This muse is called HISTORY, and she holds a book in one hand, a trumpet in the other.
The vase is marked with the inscribed number 69 and a gilt anchor mark on the side of the foot.
DOCUMENTATION: A pair of muse and landscape vases in similar style, painted by the same artists, can be seen in colour plate 10 on page 46 of John Twitchett's "Derby Porcelain 1748-1848 An Illustrated Guide".
CONDITION REPORT The vase is in excellent condition with only two minor flaws: the cover is invisibly restored, and there are some minor scratches as visible in the pictures. Other than this, there is no damage, repairs or crazing. During production someone accidentally put their thumb into the ridge around the belly of the vase; this dent has been ignored by the maker and gilded over... these little accidents happen to the best of us!
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1700s, and this meant that china from that period can have some firing specks from flying particles. British makers were also known for their experimentation, and sometimes this resulted in technically imperfect results. Due to the shrinkage in the kiln, items can have small firing lines or develop crazing over time, which should not be seen as damage but as an imperfection of the maker's recipes, probably unknown at the time of making. Items have often been used for many years and can have normal signs of wear, and gilt can have signs of slight disintegration even if never handled. I will reflect any damage, repairs, obvious stress marks, crazing or heavy wear in the item description but some minor scratches, nicks, stains and gilt disintegration can be normal for vintage items and need to be taken into account.
There is widespread confusion on the internet about the difference between chips and nicks, or hairlines and cracks. I will reflect any damage as truthfully as I can, i.e. a nick is a tiny bit of damage smaller than 1mm and a chip is something you can easily see with the eye; a glazing line is a break in the glazing only; hairline is extremely tight and/or superficial and not picked up by the finger; and a crack is obvious both to the eye and the finger. Etcetera - I try to be as accurate as I can and please feel free to ask questions or request more detailed pictures!
DIMENSIONS 29cm (11") tall incl. cover; 14.5cm (5.75") wide incl. handles.
