This is a super charming pair of spill vases made by an unknown Staffordshire maker in about 1820.
In the early 19th Century there were at some point about 300 potteries in Staffordshire, which at the time was one of the biggest centres of porcelain industry in the world. This item is from one of those factories but we haven't been able to establish which one.
Spill vases were used for match sticks to kindle the fire or transfer a flame from the fireplace to a candle or pipe. Match sticks in 1820 weren't what they are today: they were short hand-cut sticks of wood and came in bundles. Everyone had a "spill vase" on the mantle piece or on a little side table next to the fire, so that the fire could be kindled at any moment, or the match would be used to light the candles.
These little spill vases stand on three claw feet and have nice lobed rims. They are painted with a boy and a girl; on one vase they are walking, the boy pointing to a Stonehenge-like prehistoric structure with a fantastical bird, on the other vase the boy bribing the girl, who must have been quite unimpressed by the bird, with grapes. The paintings are slightly naive but extremely charming, the children set in a beautiful English hilly landscape and the Stonehenge stone structure with the strange bird beautifully painted.
The vases are unmarked but in the style of about 1820.
CONDITION REPORT The vases are in perfect antique condition without any damage or repairs and very little wear. There is a tiny amount of crazing but this is hardly visible and the white ground and colours are fresh and clean.
Antique British porcelain is never perfect. Kilns were fired on coal in the 1800s, 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 13cm (5") high and 8.5cm (3.3") diameter.
