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Lot Essay
The so-called 'Frog' Service, named after the Kekerekinsky ('Frog-marsh') Palace (later re-named the Chesme Palace), is considered to be the most ambitious and significant of British ceramic commissions. It's order by the Russian Empress confirmed the influence of innovative British art and design on Continental Europe at that time including the interest in, and fashion for, British liberal approaches to religion, trade and politics. Correspondingly, although the service was a commercial proposition rather than a diplomatic gift, the onus was on Wedgwood to represent Britain in it's essence, something which had not been previously attempted. The partnership of Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley rose to the challenge and proposed to capture an entirely new set of views of Britain. This eventually proved impractical and they finally relied on a variety of sources, including prints; however, a total of 1222 views were disposed over 944 pieces by artists working in the firm's decorating workshops in Chelsea. To this day, the poignant series of monochrome landscapes, an attempt at a depiction of the notion of British nationhood, it's history, origins and ambitions, remains a telling testimony and an invaluable document.
Of all the types of scene depicted on the service, the group of 'Gothic' ruins is the largest. The ruined castles and abbeys which are intrinsic to the British landscape have resonances on a deep level, evoking feelings of a country at peace with itself after the struggles of the Reformation and the Civil War; however they are also more superficially linked to then fashion for the Gothic and the picturesque. The Kekerekinsky Palace itself was built in a romantic Gothic style. The distinctive frog escutcheons, while referring to the palace's site, also associated the service with Aristophenes' 'The Frogs', which celebrates the Feast of Bacchus, appropriate for a country palace intended for entertaining and merry-making; and also Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' which relates the story of the goddess Leto, who when passing through Lycia and thirsty and denied water to drink by peasants working in the reed-beds, turned them into frogs. The image was a popular one with painters, garden architects and sculptors, and as Leto was mother of Apollo and Diana and was often depicted with her children beside her, this may well relate directly to Catherine's original wish that the service be decorated '..with a frog and a child..'
Another plate painted with a version of this view of Burstall Abbey (but with a fishing-boat in the foreground, sailing on a calmer sea) is with the majority of the service in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Described in Bentley's contemporary catalogue of the service as 'Vue de L'Abbaye de Burstall, dans le Comté d'York' and numbered 227 in the catalogue, it is derived from an engraving from Samuel and Nathaniel Buck Antiquities, or Venerable Remains of Above Four Hundred Castles, Monasteries, Palaces, etc. etc., in England and Wales (London, 1725-39) entitled 'The South View of Burstal-Abbey, near Hull in York-shire'. The Abbey had been rebuilt as a manor house in 1540, prior to falling into disrepair and finally being demolished in 1765.
How or why the current lot became separated from or did not join the remainder of the service in Russia is not known. An apocryphal family story recounts that Josiah Wedgwood himself brought it at as a gift when visiting the present owner's ancestor, but cracked it on the way on a bumpy coach ride; however, knowing Wedgwood's passion for quality this seems unlikely. The fact that the plate itself is slightly speckled and sanded to the rim and reverse would seem to suggest that it might have been a slightly over-fired example and perhaps it was not sent for this reason.
See The Green Frog Service (London and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 1995) and in particular, no. 983, p. 365 for the other plate painted with a view of Burstall Abbey. See also Robin Reilly, The Dictionary of Wedgwood (1989), Vol. I, pp. 271-282. Very few pieces survive outside the main body of the service; see the plate sold in these Rooms, 20th May 1991, lot 192 and the polychrome trial plate sold 10th October 1983, lot 122. Two oval dishes and a plate have been sold by Sotheby's: 22nd December 1970, lot 154; 17th and 18th December 1968, lot 227; and 7th and 8th October 1968, lot 195.
Of all the types of scene depicted on the service, the group of 'Gothic' ruins is the largest. The ruined castles and abbeys which are intrinsic to the British landscape have resonances on a deep level, evoking feelings of a country at peace with itself after the struggles of the Reformation and the Civil War; however they are also more superficially linked to then fashion for the Gothic and the picturesque. The Kekerekinsky Palace itself was built in a romantic Gothic style. The distinctive frog escutcheons, while referring to the palace's site, also associated the service with Aristophenes' 'The Frogs', which celebrates the Feast of Bacchus, appropriate for a country palace intended for entertaining and merry-making; and also Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' which relates the story of the goddess Leto, who when passing through Lycia and thirsty and denied water to drink by peasants working in the reed-beds, turned them into frogs. The image was a popular one with painters, garden architects and sculptors, and as Leto was mother of Apollo and Diana and was often depicted with her children beside her, this may well relate directly to Catherine's original wish that the service be decorated '..with a frog and a child..'
Another plate painted with a version of this view of Burstall Abbey (but with a fishing-boat in the foreground, sailing on a calmer sea) is with the majority of the service in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Described in Bentley's contemporary catalogue of the service as 'Vue de L'Abbaye de Burstall, dans le Comté d'York' and numbered 227 in the catalogue, it is derived from an engraving from Samuel and Nathaniel Buck Antiquities, or Venerable Remains of Above Four Hundred Castles, Monasteries, Palaces, etc. etc., in England and Wales (London, 1725-39) entitled 'The South View of Burstal-Abbey, near Hull in York-shire'. The Abbey had been rebuilt as a manor house in 1540, prior to falling into disrepair and finally being demolished in 1765.
How or why the current lot became separated from or did not join the remainder of the service in Russia is not known. An apocryphal family story recounts that Josiah Wedgwood himself brought it at as a gift when visiting the present owner's ancestor, but cracked it on the way on a bumpy coach ride; however, knowing Wedgwood's passion for quality this seems unlikely. The fact that the plate itself is slightly speckled and sanded to the rim and reverse would seem to suggest that it might have been a slightly over-fired example and perhaps it was not sent for this reason.
See The Green Frog Service (London and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 1995) and in particular, no. 983, p. 365 for the other plate painted with a view of Burstall Abbey. See also Robin Reilly, The Dictionary of Wedgwood (1989), Vol. I, pp. 271-282. Very few pieces survive outside the main body of the service; see the plate sold in these Rooms, 20th May 1991, lot 192 and the polychrome trial plate sold 10th October 1983, lot 122. Two oval dishes and a plate have been sold by Sotheby's: 22nd December 1970, lot 154; 17th and 18th December 1968, lot 227; and 7th and 8th October 1968, lot 195.