Skillet
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.)
Food warmer (hot water plate), earthenware, in the form of a hollow covered dish, standing on a rounded foot-rim, deep curving sides and spreading rim, the top in the form of a plate with slightly domed well, a raised edge around the well, spreading rim, triangular loop handle on either side supporting triangular water spouts which jut out from the main body, water spout on right open, on left capped with moulded anthemion, notched rim, a large chip missing from the rim; transfer-printed in blue with to the well the 'Cows Crossing a Stream' pattern, in the foreground a male figure drives three cattle across a stream by the side of a bridge, in the background a rural landscape of a mill, other buildings and trees, a wide border spreading up the sides of the well and onto the rim of flowers and foliage on a stippled blue ground, a narrow dentilled ribbon border to the outer rim, vignette of 'Cows Crossing a Stream' on either outer side of the dish, handles printed with fruiting vines reserved on a deep blue ground.
Creation/Production
Date: 1824-1870
Acquisition
Bequest, 10/12/1953
Measurements
Height
(cm): 6.4
diam
(cm): 25.1
Width
(cm): 29.9
Height
(in): 2
diam
(in): 9
Width
(in): 11
Techniques
press-moulded
forming
Applied Art
assembled
forming
Applied Art
transfer-printed
decoration
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
Material
earthenware
glaze
