Cow-creamer and cover
Cambrian Pottery (Established in Swansea in 1764, the Cambrian Pottery reached its creative peak under the proprietorship of Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855), who ran the Pottery (with a break between 1817 and 1824) from 1802 to 1836. Lewis Weston Dillwyn was a natural scientist, antiquarian, Member of Parliament, magistrate and landowner whose intellectual interests drove the Cambrian Pottery to become one of the most ambitious and artistically accomplished British potteries of the early 19th century. While the porcelain manufactured in Swansea between 1814 and 1825 justifies its reputation as among the finest of British porcelains, the pottery produced under Dillwyn’s ownership between 1802 and about 1809 was at its best an equally impressive achievement, most particularly that made for sale in the Pottery’s Cambrian Warehouse in London 1806-1808, the context for which this supper service was most likely created.)
Cream jug and cover ,earthenware, in the shape of a cow, standing on a rounded oblong base, moulded around the edges to resemble foliage, the cow, with cloven hooves, an udder with four teats, a realistically modelled body with prominent breast bone, two curved horns above the ears, the tips of the horns broken off, the spout formed by the animal's open mouth, the handle formed by the tail looped over the cow's back, the cover, ovoid, forming part of the backbone; transfer-printed in black with 'split' prints, to either side of the body a group of flowers issuing foliage and scrolls, the same motif to the base, the cover with a small floral motif, the cow's face with a floral motif, the tail/handle, with a heart and loop dentil border, with the lower terminal forming part of the floral design to the main body.
Creation/Production
Date: 1824-1870
Acquisition
Bequest, 10/12/1953
Measurements
Height
(cm): 14.3
Length
(cm): 17.2
Width
(cm): 7.7
Height
(in): 5
Length
(in): 6
Width
(in): 3
Techniques
slip-cast
forming
Applied Art
press-moulded
forming
Applied Art
assembled
forming
Applied Art
transfer-printed
decoration
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
Material
earthenware
glaze