CIRCA 1847-50, TRACES OF PRINTED R. REDGRAVE ARA MARK AND REGISTRATION DIAMOND

This carafe was designed by the painter and writer Richard Redgrave (1804-1888) for Henry Cole (1808-1882), who in the 1840s commissioned artists to design domestic objects for everyday use. From 1847 he sold them under the name 'Summerly's Art Manufactures'. The design of the decoration, known as the 'Well Spring', was intended to reflect the function of the object, one of the guiding principles for designs promoted by Cole. The 'Well Spring' was Redgrave's first design for the Summerly scheme; it was completed and handed over to Cole on 10 January 1847 and sold to J. F. Christy of Stangate Glassworks, Lambeth, less than a month later. A version with handles was described as 'the Water Jug', and was shown in the Society of Arts Exhibition of Recent British Manufactures in 1848. By the end of 1847 in glass, it was offered as a single-handled jug, as a 'caraffe and glass' and as the handle-less version (as in the present lot). For further discussion of the history of this design see the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. 4503-1901.