Wedgwood Pearlware Nautilus Sauce Tureen, Cover & Stand

Details

Description

Conchological Rarity: Wedgwood Pearlware Nautilus Sauce Tureen & Stand,
Circa 1790

A superb and rare late 18th-century Wedgwood pearlware sauce … Read more Conchological Rarity: Wedgwood Pearlware Nautilus Sauce Tureen & Stand,
Circa 1790

A superb and rare late 18th-century Wedgwood pearlware sauce tureen, cover, and stand, brilliantly modeled as a naturalistic Nautilus shell. This piece exemplifies the scientific curiosity of the Enlightenment and Josiah Wedgwood’s personal obsession with conchology.

The tureen is formed as a large, ribbed scallop shell resting on a pedestal foot, which locks securely into a seaweed-molded indentation on the matching shell-form stand. The cover is surmounted by a realistically modeled "worm cast" (twisted shell) finial.

Most notably, this example features a rare color palette: while many examples are plain white or edged in blue, this piece is delicately washed in translucent enamels of soft lemon yellow and pink. The yellow ground is particularly scarce and desirable.

Condition: Good.

Measurements:
• Height: 7 inches (17.8 cm)
• Width: 9 1/4 inches (23.5 cm)
• Depth: 6 inches (15.2 cm)

Historical Context: Josiah Wedgwood was a passionate amateur conchologist. In a 1778 letter to his partner Bentley, he confessed to being "in imminent danger of becoming a connoisseur" of shells. This passion translated directly into his "Nautilus" dessert service, introduced around 1790. The shape was based on scientific observation, earning it the title "Wreathed Shell Dessert" in the original factory pattern books.

Literature & Reference:
• The Dwight and Lucille Beeson Wedgwood Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art, page 279 for various pieces from a Nautilus dessert service. On page 161 is a discussion of the "Nautilus Service with a colour plate (#148) illustrating the centrepiece and stand in colours similar to this one and described as white ware with pink, yellow, orange and pale brown underglaze decoration, circa 1815.

• The chapter reads, "An amateur conchologist, Joshua Wedgwood I confessed in a letter to Bently on September 15, 1778: I have got my face over a shell drawer, & find my self in imminent danger of becoming a connoisseur. you can scarcely conceive the progress I have made in a month or two in the epp & very elaborate science of shell fancying. Having arranged my whole collection in the most systematic manner & studied them with the nicest attention, I can tell you, at sight, ...distinctions which you,..would not understand & might therefore under value. But this study, alass, like every other extension of the human mind, as it multiplies the avenues to our enjoyments discloses new sources of wants & anxieties, & at this present writing..a fine addition.. would make me the happiest of chonchiologists.

• The first pieces of Wedgwood's "Nautilus" service appeared in about 1790, and a copy of his original drawing for a tureen and stand and eight plates, the designs of which are correctly identified according to the terms used in conchology and titled "Wreathed Shell Dessert Coloured" is to be found in Wedgwood's pattern book and bears an 1802 watermark.

(Ref: NY9701-xlim) See less