.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
See Frederick Rathbone, Old Wedgwood, the Decorative or Artistic Ceramics Work, in Colour and Relief Invented and Produced by Josiah Wedgwood, Buten Museum reprint, 1968, pp. 120-121, plate IV for a discussion of the model.
The subject is based on an antique gem in the Marlborough Collection. After The Portland Vase, it is the most popular subject produced at Wedgwood and was made in a variety of sizes. A somewhat larger version, from the collection of Emily Winthrop Miles, is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum (64.82.66). The Sacrifice of Hymen was conceived by John Flaxman for Wedgwood as a pendent to the present subject.
The subject is based on an antique gem in the Marlborough Collection. After The Portland Vase, it is the most popular subject produced at Wedgwood and was made in a variety of sizes. A somewhat larger version, from the collection of Emily Winthrop Miles, is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum (64.82.66). The Sacrifice of Hymen was conceived by John Flaxman for Wedgwood as a pendent to the present subject.