Chamberlain Worcester Porcelain Neoclassical Goblet, Humphrey Chamberlain

Details

Description

Chamberlain Worcester Porcelain Goblet with Grisaille Allegory of Painting after Angelica Kauffman, Circa 1805–1815

This large Chamberlain Worcester goblet pairs … Read more Chamberlain Worcester Porcelain Goblet with Grisaille Allegory of Painting after Angelica Kauffman, Circa 1805–1815

This large Chamberlain Worcester goblet pairs a serious little picture with a joyful riot of Regency color. On one side an oval panel painted entirely in shades of gray, like a print or a carved cameo, shows an allegorical figure of Painting seated beneath a rainbow, her hand resting on a canvas on its easel, a brush in her other hand and her palette lying at her feet. The figure is attributed to Humphrey Chamberlain junior, the finest painter at the Chamberlain factory, and is adapted from the celebrated allegories of the Elements of Art that Angelica Kauffman painted for the ceiling of the Royal Academy in London.

Around it the goblet is dressed to the nines: a broad gilt rim over a band of iron-red faux bois, a gilt chain of yellow-centered lozenges that reads like a gold bracelet, a garland of little white roundels each painted with a rose bouquet, yellow lozenges dropping gilt husk swags, and a body strewn with tiny crimson rosebuds and gilt sprigs. Yellow and gilt rays flare up from the stem, and the spreading foot is banded in yellow, iron-red and gilt reeding picked out with rows of tiny blue dots.

At seven inches high it is a substantial and very decorative object. Set it on a library table or a mantel where the grisaille panel can be seen at eye level, group it with other early nineteenth-century English porcelain on a bookcase shelf, or let it hold a small posy of roses on a dressing table. The saturated yellow, coral and gilt sit beautifully against dark green, navy or aubergine walls and will lift a neutral scheme.

Dimensions
Height: 7 inches (17.8 cm)
Diameter: 6 1/4 inches (15.9 cm)

Marks
Unmarked. The glazed hollow foot bears no factory mark and the grisaille panel is not signed; Chamberlain wares of this period were frequently left unmarked, and the attribution of the figure painting to Humphrey Chamberlain junior rests on style.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge


Inventory Ref: NY8112/pimx See less