Plate
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.)
Plate, earthenware, octagonal in shape, rounded foot-rim, cushion-moulded sides and spreading rim, two concentric circles of embossed daisies to the rim, gadrooned edge to the outer rim; transfer-printed in black and lightly overpainted in orange, yellow and blue with to the centre of the well a scene showing a male figure in bishop's robes blessing a small child which he holds in his arms, behind him stands another figure dressed as a priest, an urn stands in the centre of the scene to the other side of which are one standing and two kneeling figures, pillars and swagged curtains frame the scene at either side, over the scene hovers a large eye within a halo of radiating lines, to the bottom of the scene is the curving inscription "THE BISHOP OF HELLOPOLIS", an irridescent pink lustre band to the outer rim.
(We are not able to provide an image for this item at this time. This is either due to copyright restrictions, or because the item is awaiting digitisation. We apologise for any inconvenience.)
Creation/Production
Date: 1840-1850
Acquisition
Gift, 10/12/1986
Given by Mrs L. J. Harflett
Measurements
Height
(cm): 2.7
diam
(cm): 18.1
Height
(in): 1
diam
(in): 7
Techniques
press-moulded
forming
Applied Art
transfer-printed
decoration
Applied Art
enamelled
decoration
Applied Art
lustred
decoration
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
Material
earthenware
enamel
glaze
