Dish, soap, liner 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.)
Soap dish, earthenware, oblong box-like bottom section with waved sides and anthemion moulding to the rim, in this sits the liner with flat base, flaring sides and shelving rim, the rim waved, numerous perforated holes to the base of the liner, cover with vertical sides and slightly domed top, the sides of the cover waved, anthemion moulding around the top of the cover; transfer-printed in blue with to the top of the well the 'Swiss Villa' pattern, an ornate gabled building by the side of a lake against a background of trees and mountains, the scene surrounded on three sides by a cartouche of rococo scrolls, flowers and foliage, the same pattern to the interior of the liner, border to the sides of the dish and the sides of the cover of a ribbon band with hearts and scrolls issuing flower heads, scrolls and foliage, ribbon band with hearts and scrolls to the interior sides of the liner.
Creation/Production
Date:
Acquisition
Bequest, 10/12/1953
Measurements
Height
(cm): 8.3
Length
(cm): 13.4
Width
(cm): 11
Height
(in): 3
Length
(in): 5
Width
(in): 4
Techniques
press-moulded
forming
Applied Art
transfer-printed
decoration
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
Material
earthenware
glaze
