Lot Essay
This pair of ewers, known as "Sacred to Neptune" and "Sacred to Bacchus," are water and wine vessels, each with the respective mythical figures connotating their intended purpose. The pair of ewers was designed by John Flaxman, Sr. for Wedgewood and Bentley in 1775. The invoice dated 25 March between Flaxman and the firm listed, "A pair of vases one with a Satyr & the other with Triton Handle L 3.3" (Dawson, Masterpieces of Wedgewood in the British Museum (London, 1984), pp. 38-40).
An enthusiast for classical forms, Flaxman looked back to the "antique" for design inspiration. He was no doubt familiar with the work of artists such as Jean Le Pautre, a French designer, whose ca. 1661 "Design for Vases" is remarkably similar to the Wedgewood ewers, with garland swags, animal mask and satyr figure (see, Documenting Designs: Work on Paper in the European Collection of the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, 1993), p. 34.) It is likely that Le Pautre himself referred back to ancient sources for inspiration.
These vases were among the most elaborately rendered by the Wedgewood factory. The popularity of the design lent to their manufacture in a variety of media during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as jasper-ware, caneware, silver, majolica and bone-china (Dawson, p. 40; Adams, Wedgewood Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Alabama, 1992), pp. 55-67, p. 244. 270). Black basalt, however, was the favored material, as Wedgewood and Bentley relate in A Catalogue of Vases and Other Ornaments After the Antique, Made by Wedgewood and Bentley (London, 1779), p. 53, under the heading, "Antique Vases, of Black Porcelain, or Artificial Basaltes, highly finished, with Bas-relief Ornaments:"
....we have reason to conclude, that there are not any Vases of Porcelain, Marble, or Bronze, either ancient or modern, so highly finnished, and sharp in their Ornaments, as these black Vases; and on this Account, together with the Precision of their Out-lines, and simplicity of their antique Forms,
they have had the honour of being highly and frequently
recommended by many of the Connoisseurs in Europe; and of being placed amongst the finest Productions of the Age, in
the Palaces and Cabinets of Princes.
An enthusiast for classical forms, Flaxman looked back to the "antique" for design inspiration. He was no doubt familiar with the work of artists such as Jean Le Pautre, a French designer, whose ca. 1661 "Design for Vases" is remarkably similar to the Wedgewood ewers, with garland swags, animal mask and satyr figure (see, Documenting Designs: Work on Paper in the European Collection of the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, 1993), p. 34.) It is likely that Le Pautre himself referred back to ancient sources for inspiration.
These vases were among the most elaborately rendered by the Wedgewood factory. The popularity of the design lent to their manufacture in a variety of media during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as jasper-ware, caneware, silver, majolica and bone-china (Dawson, p. 40; Adams, Wedgewood Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Alabama, 1992), pp. 55-67, p. 244. 270). Black basalt, however, was the favored material, as Wedgewood and Bentley relate in A Catalogue of Vases and Other Ornaments After the Antique, Made by Wedgewood and Bentley (London, 1779), p. 53, under the heading, "Antique Vases, of Black Porcelain, or Artificial Basaltes, highly finished, with Bas-relief Ornaments:"
....we have reason to conclude, that there are not any Vases of Porcelain, Marble, or Bronze, either ancient or modern, so highly finnished, and sharp in their Ornaments, as these black Vases; and on this Account, together with the Precision of their Out-lines, and simplicity of their antique Forms,
they have had the honour of being highly and frequently
recommended by many of the Connoisseurs in Europe; and of being placed amongst the finest Productions of the Age, in
the Palaces and Cabinets of Princes.