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Lot Essay
The print source for the form of the present vase first appears in Entwerff einer Historischen Architektur after Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656-1723), published in 1721 and translated into English in 1730, see Malcom Baker's article 'Vase Maker General' [Hilary Young (ed.)'The Genius of Wedgwood' Catalogue, (London, 1995), p. 112, pl. E29]. The two vases reproduced are stated to be from the collection of the Marquis de Caprio, Viceroy of Naples, and both appear as Wedgwood stoneware forms. Baker attributes the design to the artist's invention rather than direct copies of the antique. The form closely associated with 'The Hamilton Vase', the Apulian Red figured Volute Krater vase formerly in the collection of the British Envoy to the Court of Ferdinand IV in Naples, Sir William Hamilton, and now in the British Museum (Inv. No. GR 1772.3-20.14*). The vase was reproduced in the first of four volumes by Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville, Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton, Naples, 1766, pls. 52-55. The first two volumes of the collection appeared six years before Sir William's first collection was acquired by the British Nation (by Act of Parliament on 20th March 1772). But Wedgwood had already had early access to the proofs of the illustrations of the publication via Lord Cathcart, and when the first volume was published a copy was given to Wedgwood by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. See Robin Reilly, The Dictionary of Wedgwood, Vol. I (1989), p.414; and figs. 597, 598, 601 and 601A, pls. C100 and C102.