The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
The Family Collection of the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma
A Wedgwood black basalt vase, circa 1780
Auction Closed
March 24, 08:41 PM GMT
Estimate
1,200 - 1,800 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Wedgwood black basalt vase
circa 1780
of ovoid shape with twin handles, encaustic decorated with a seated female figure and a warrior, unmarked
31.5cm high
Probably Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet (1758-1819)
Inventory, 1926, p. 38, in the billiard room.
The editor's preface to volume I of The Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honble Wm Hamilton, Naples, 1766, 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 provision for artists, copyists and particularly 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.