Jug
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.)
Jug, pearl-glazed earthenware, goblular form, straight neck, plain spout, small thumbpiece to strap handle; decorated with a medallion under spout containing view of the ruin of the Hall at Caerphilly Castle with two figures; band of gilt foliage, flowers and insects to either side of medallion, gilt bands around medallion, around base and handle, above shoulder and around rim. Gilded decoration around upper part of neck of overlapping ovals and dots; gilt caillouté to spout, line of gilt husks along back of handle.
Named topographical views are rare on Swansea pottery of this period, and can generally be attributed either (as here) to Thomas Pardoe, the Cambrian Pottery’s chief painter between about 1790 and 1809, or to William Weston Young (employed there 1803-1806). This jug is closely similar to a jug painted by Pardoe with a view of Mumbles lighthouse in the National Museum’s collection and may even have been made as a pair to it.
Creation/Production
Date: 1805 ca –
Acquisition
Gift, 13/11/2013
Given by Dr Graham Jenkins
Measurements
Height
(cm): 18.8
Height
(in): 7
l(cm) handle to spout:20
l(cm)
l(in) handle to spout:7 7/8
l(in)
Depth
(cm): 14.3
Depth
(in): 5
Techniques
wheel-thrown
forming
Applied Art
extruded
forming
Applied Art
assembled
forming
Applied Art
glazed
decoration
Applied Art
gilded
decoration
Applied Art
enamelled
decoration
Applied Art
