A WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT 'ENCAUSTIC'-DECORATED AMPHORA VASE LATE 18TH CENTURY

S. Nager Collection, 1976

Ars Ceramica, 2019, cover

In volume IV of his 1774 Discourse, Sir Joshua Reynolds discusses the desire to imitate classical paintings and forms of ancient Greece and Rome in the 18th century. He describes these antiquities as a "magazine" of "common property, always open to the public, whence every man has the right to take what he pleases", as referenced by Viccy Coltman, 'Sir William Hamilton's Vase Publications (1766-1776): A Case Study in the Reproduction and Dissemination of Antiquity', Journal of Design History, 2001, Vol. 14, No. 1 p. 1. However, these works were rarely, if ever, accessible to public view in the 18th century, most housed in private collections. The editor's preface to volume I of The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon^ble W^m Hamilton, Naples,1766, by the editor, P. F. d'Hancarville, reveals a primary purpose of the publication: "Mr. Hamilton...has long made it a pleasure to collect these precious Monuments of the Genius of the Ancients, and less flattered with the advantage of possessing them, than that of rendering them useful to Artists, to Men of Letters and by their means to the World in general...". This intention by Hamilton and its specific connection to Wedgwood is extensively discussed in an essay by Sebastian Schütz, 'Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton', The Complete Collection of Antiquities from the Cabinet of Sir William Hamilton, Cologne, 2004, p. 30-31, a reprint of the plates from the original 1766 two- volume publication.

The three figures on this vase are taken from d'Hancarville (ed.) op. cit., Vol. II, Col. Pl. 30. An encaustic-decorated vase of this form, though smaller, 12 in., is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, mus. no. 1506-1855, illustrated in W. B. Honey, Wedgwood Ware, London, 1948 pl. 52.