A Mason's Ironstone vase probably painted by Samuel Bourne

CIRCA 1820, IMPRESSED CIRCULAR MARK

Details

A Mason's Ironstone vase probably painted by Samuel Bourne
Circa 1820, impressed circular mark
In three sections, the slender green-ground neck below a richly-gilt flared rim, the two gilt and painted handles formed as a cornucopia with a merman finial and as a merman covering his face with his hands, the oviform body painted with two shaped panels, one of boys and cattle in a river landscape with buildings in the distance, the other of a cowherd, girls, cows and sheep in a landscape, flanked by underglaze- blue-ground and gilt borders and above a moulded and gilt band of roses, flowers and foliage, the lower gadrooned part gilt with foliage- swags on a green-ground above a fluted slender foot and on a gilt square base with black rim (slight flaking to painted panels re-touched, slight re-touching to gilding, footrim re-painted)
27¼in. (69cm.) high

Literature

Valerie Howard, 'An Exhibition Dedicated to the Landscape & Flower Painting on Miles Mason Porcelain & Early Ironstone China', Catalogue, no. 23; see also col. pl. p. 23. Mrs Howard there attributes the vase to Samuel Bourne and refers to two only known signed examples of his work, those being a watercolour and a Minton tray of circa 1850.

Gaye Blake Roberts, 'Mason's: The First 200 Years', Exhibition Catalogue (1996), p. 94.

Exhibited

'An Exhibition Dedicated to the Landscape & Flower Painting On Miles Mason Porcelain & Early Ironstone China', Valerie Howard Antique China, London, November - December 1993.

'Mason's Ironstone, In Celebration of 200 Years', Wedgwood, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, June - October 1996.

Lot Essay

Cf. Geoffrey Godden, The Guide to Mason's China and the Ironstone Wares (1991), p. 195, pl. 251.

At present it is thought that perhaps three vases of this type with similar decoration are in existence, of which one is in the collection of Keele University.

We are grateful to Mrs Howard for her assistance in compiling this catalogue entry.

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