Thursday, April 28, 2011
WEDGWOOD LOOK WEDDING CAKE
Click the title of this post to see some gorgeous wedding cakes on display at Harrod's in London, one of which you should recognize, Wedgwood's interpretation based on the Renaissance Gold pattern of William and Catherine's Royalty Commemorative china - so we have the pattern on a rug, a cake and royalty souvenirs. I have to wonder how popular the Renaissance Gold pattern has become as a table setting! Enjoy these gorgeous photos! ONCE FINISHED WITH THE CAKES, BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE SLIDESHOW LINKS BELOW THE CAKE PHOTOS - THESE ARE PROBABLY THE BEST, MOST SUCCINCT PHOTOS ALL IN ONE PLACE WE'VE SEEN COVERING THE FAMILY HISTORIES, STORY OF THE ROMANCE, ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM AND CATHERINE. WELL DOCUMENTED GORGEOUS PHOTOS, AND IF ONE IS INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT, WORTH THE TIME TO VIEW! AND YOU LADIES INTERESTED IN ALL THINGS DIAMANTE, DON'T MISS THE SLIDESHOW TAB CALLED "CROWN JEWELS" ABOUT THE HISTORIC ROYAL TIARAS, GORGEOUS PHOTOS, ALMOST LIKE BEING RIGHT IN THE TOWER!
Monday, April 25, 2011
ROYALTY COMMEMORATIVES ENJOY POPULARITY
As a person involved in many things British, I am frequently asked about Royalty Souvenir items, especially, obviously, ceramics. If you check out our other blog posts, you will see some articles about the current flurry of new Royal Wedding commemoratives. There are many collectors around the world, especially in the Commonwealth countries, for all things Royal. We normally say that any time there is a change in the Royal Family, interest in royalty souvenir china spikes up. The current Royal Wedding craze is no different. We therefore are highlighting some of our royal items in inventory, and will be bringing out more in the next day or so. The thimble pictured here came out in 1983, when Diana was pregnant with Prince Harry. It is styled Charles & Diana Royal Birth Thimble. Additionally we have a great plate featuring the Duke of Windsor as Edward 8th, his face shown from the right side. This plate is well executed, with thick enamel paint, but most importantly not only rare because much of the Edward VIIIth items were broken and discarded, but because The Duke disliked his own right side profile thus seldom allowed items with these images. We also have available a Keith Murray Queensware tankard featuring The Duke of Windsor as King and a very nice tricolour jasper Trojan upright rope-handled jug featuring Prince Charles & Lady Diana at the time of their marriage. Also from the era of Charles & Diana's wedding, 30 years ago now, we have a Richard Guyatt design Queensware plate featuring Diana, Charles and the Prince of Wales feathers. Click the links for a good selection of royalty commemorative items. And watch those royal happenings to see the upswing in availability and popularity of Royal Commemorative ceramics, a great time for collectors!
Friday, April 22, 2011
WEDGWOOD ON TV
I have always loved the PBS program "Upstairs, Downstairs" so was delighted to learn a new version is now airing. On a recent episode the staff is below stairs eating sweets and listening to the wireless, an orchestral concert at the Palm Court. My mind goes directly to the Palm Court room at the London Ritz, a gorgeous place to find oneself. Someone comments that a background sound is probably the tinkling of china cups and saucers as refreshments are served during the concert; Rose says it is probably glass, and the butler, in his infinite wisdom, says, "Bone china makes a very fine sound and it would be bone china at an establishment like that, Wedgwood possibly, or even Spode". I loved the reference. If one watches these episodes one will see that at least one of the family's fine bone china patterns is 'Colonnade Black' by Wedgwood...I've seen it in the first two episodes. I believe the next episode is this coming Sunday evening, Easter Sunday. Enjoy!
ROYAL WEDDING CAN'T BE IGNORED - HELPING CERAMIC INDUSTRY
Click this post title for an informative article from UK Sentinel letting us know various ways in which many Brits are celebrating the upcoming wedding. Lots of fun activities are planned. I haven't been keeping track of what folks are doing on this side of the pond, but I have bought my fascinator to wear with my pj's as I drink tea with the ladies of Daughters of the British Empire at a 5am Wedding Watch party here in St. Louis.
On another note it appears that the ceramics industry in Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding pottery areas is on the upswing. Some of this success is being attributed to the healthy sales of Royal Wedding wares. Wedgwood & Sons has produced a plate, mug, covered box and megabuck commemorative urn for the occasion. The other potteries are also producing beautiful wares. The Wedgwood Museum [see older post below] commissioned a mug which, while not made by Wedgwood, was made in Stoke and the backstamp bears this out. You can go here to see a short video and read an article about the subject of increasing profits, something we all want to hear about! You might have to wait a few seconds for the right video to be visible at the top but the text is located right below the video screen. And you can always go to www.wedgwood.com to see Royal Wedding, Mothers Day and regular wedding merchandise. They have a set of 3 top banners, if you want the Royal Wedding just wait a few seconds until it shows up at the top of the page.
The Royal Wedding Collection design is based on the Wedgwood bone china pattern Renaissance Gold. If you scroll through the entries on the right side of our blog, you'll see Piers, Lord Wedgwood, standing on a rug also inspired by this same china pattern. Take a look!
On another note it appears that the ceramics industry in Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding pottery areas is on the upswing. Some of this success is being attributed to the healthy sales of Royal Wedding wares. Wedgwood & Sons has produced a plate, mug, covered box and megabuck commemorative urn for the occasion. The other potteries are also producing beautiful wares. The Wedgwood Museum [see older post below] commissioned a mug which, while not made by Wedgwood, was made in Stoke and the backstamp bears this out. You can go here to see a short video and read an article about the subject of increasing profits, something we all want to hear about! You might have to wait a few seconds for the right video to be visible at the top but the text is located right below the video screen. And you can always go to www.wedgwood.com to see Royal Wedding, Mothers Day and regular wedding merchandise. They have a set of 3 top banners, if you want the Royal Wedding just wait a few seconds until it shows up at the top of the page.
The Royal Wedding Collection design is based on the Wedgwood bone china pattern Renaissance Gold. If you scroll through the entries on the right side of our blog, you'll see Piers, Lord Wedgwood, standing on a rug also inspired by this same china pattern. Take a look!
Friday, April 8, 2011
20th CENTURY SALE OF OLD WEDGWOOD MEDALLIONS
From our good friend Lord Anthony Pulford (Tony) in Scotland, who is particularly fond of Wedgwood's antique Portrait Medallions, comes some recent research on his part. An interesting article which brings up some interesting questions; if you know the answer to the questions posed, please use the comment utility to fill us in! THANK YOU your Lordship for sharing your research with our readers!
A sale took place in the Collectors' Room at Marshall Field & Company, probably around the middle of the 20th century. The precise date is not known at present as there appear to be no records surviving at the store. The catalogue gives an interesting glimpse into the collecting methods of an early 20th century collector, David Davis, and the prices asked just sixty years or so ago.
A good example is number 450 in the catalogue, a pair of Wedgwood & Bentley medallions of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in fancy ormolu frames which, as the catalogue entry states, were purchased in October 1919 from the Wedgwood Museum at Etruria. The entry continues that only two of these trial portraits were made, the other pair still being in the hands of the Wedgwood family. Price $850 the pair. What would any modern day collector give to be able to visit the Wedgwood Museum and purchase pieces from the collection? [We may get the chance if the current legal issues aren't solved properly!]
Other choice pieces include a Dr Henry Pemberton formerly owned by Erasmus Darwin for $300 and a 10.5 inch x 8 inch Dr Joseph Priestley for $450. The catalogue says of the latter that only eight subjects were modeled in this large size and "of these large plaques there do not exist more than a dozen altogether, several of them being destroyed in a fire at the Alexandra Palace". The Alexandra Palace was destroyed by fire in 1873, only sixteen days after it opened.
In all, the sale consisted of 177 portrait medallions, all 18th century and ranging in price from a Wedgwood & Bentley medallion of an unknown subject for $25 to a tray of nine Wedgwood & Bentley medallions for $450.
The catalogue is accompanied by a booklet, also undated, describing pieces in the collection reproduced from "The Quest of The Antique" written by Mrs Willoughby Hodgson and published in England in 1924. Mrs Hodgson wrote extensively on ceramics in the early 20th century but who she was is yet to be discovered. Will collectors fifty years hence look on the prices paid for 20th century portrait medallions with the same degree of envy that these prices of fifty years ago invoke now?
In the Catalog of the Wedgwood Museum at Etruria, Staffordshire, published in 1909 we find on page 73 the following: "101 Square frame containing 14 early "trial" portraits. In cane colour, white relief. Washington (2) Franklin (2) Linnaeus (3) Voltaire and Rev. C. Wyvill (2) Miss Edgworth, black ground, white relief, and another, all white; Henry IV,. blue and white; a Roman Philosopher waxen jasper; a blank field, and 11 small portraits for rings, in cameo and intaglio. Thirteen of the portraits are incised on back with Wedgwood's formula for the body. One (Washington) solid blue body, cane colored field, has:
I-M I-C I-No.1559 I-D flint in {wash}
The small portraits have various memoranda as:- 3037 A T. B. O.&c. Ten are marked Wedgwood & Bentley." This catalogue entry is 10 years earlier than Mr. Davis' purchase of a Washington and Franklin pair of medallions from the Etruria Museum. Could they be the same? Check pages 3 & 4 of the Catalogue using the links below! Here is the photo of the medallion of Benjamin Franklin listed as #101 in the Museum Catalogue, likely one of those purchased in 1919 by Mr. Davis.
Please click these links to see photos of the catalogue, booklet and drawing of the Alexandra Palace during the fire. And you can click the post title to read a LOT about Alexandra Palace! And go here for a great Virtual Tour of Etruria courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum. Addenda: Tony has graciously scanned all pages of the Sale Catalogue for us. Please click the following links for the actual pages.
Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5
Link6
Link7
Link8
Link9
Link10
Link11
A sale took place in the Collectors' Room at Marshall Field & Company, probably around the middle of the 20th century. The precise date is not known at present as there appear to be no records surviving at the store. The catalogue gives an interesting glimpse into the collecting methods of an early 20th century collector, David Davis, and the prices asked just sixty years or so ago.
A good example is number 450 in the catalogue, a pair of Wedgwood & Bentley medallions of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in fancy ormolu frames which, as the catalogue entry states, were purchased in October 1919 from the Wedgwood Museum at Etruria. The entry continues that only two of these trial portraits were made, the other pair still being in the hands of the Wedgwood family. Price $850 the pair. What would any modern day collector give to be able to visit the Wedgwood Museum and purchase pieces from the collection? [We may get the chance if the current legal issues aren't solved properly!]
Other choice pieces include a Dr Henry Pemberton formerly owned by Erasmus Darwin for $300 and a 10.5 inch x 8 inch Dr Joseph Priestley for $450. The catalogue says of the latter that only eight subjects were modeled in this large size and "of these large plaques there do not exist more than a dozen altogether, several of them being destroyed in a fire at the Alexandra Palace". The Alexandra Palace was destroyed by fire in 1873, only sixteen days after it opened.
In all, the sale consisted of 177 portrait medallions, all 18th century and ranging in price from a Wedgwood & Bentley medallion of an unknown subject for $25 to a tray of nine Wedgwood & Bentley medallions for $450.
The catalogue is accompanied by a booklet, also undated, describing pieces in the collection reproduced from "The Quest of The Antique" written by Mrs Willoughby Hodgson and published in England in 1924. Mrs Hodgson wrote extensively on ceramics in the early 20th century but who she was is yet to be discovered. Will collectors fifty years hence look on the prices paid for 20th century portrait medallions with the same degree of envy that these prices of fifty years ago invoke now?
In the Catalog of the Wedgwood Museum at Etruria, Staffordshire, published in 1909 we find on page 73 the following: "101 Square frame containing 14 early "trial" portraits. In cane colour, white relief. Washington (2) Franklin (2) Linnaeus (3) Voltaire and Rev. C. Wyvill (2) Miss Edgworth, black ground, white relief, and another, all white; Henry IV,. blue and white; a Roman Philosopher waxen jasper; a blank field, and 11 small portraits for rings, in cameo and intaglio. Thirteen of the portraits are incised on back with Wedgwood's formula for the body. One (Washington) solid blue body, cane colored field, has:
I-M I-C I-No.1559 I-D flint in {wash}
The small portraits have various memoranda as:- 3037 A T. B. O.&c. Ten are marked Wedgwood & Bentley." This catalogue entry is 10 years earlier than Mr. Davis' purchase of a Washington and Franklin pair of medallions from the Etruria Museum. Could they be the same? Check pages 3 & 4 of the Catalogue using the links below! Here is the photo of the medallion of Benjamin Franklin listed as #101 in the Museum Catalogue, likely one of those purchased in 1919 by Mr. Davis.
Please click these links to see photos of the catalogue, booklet and drawing of the Alexandra Palace during the fire. And you can click the post title to read a LOT about Alexandra Palace! And go here for a great Virtual Tour of Etruria courtesy of the Wedgwood Museum. Addenda: Tony has graciously scanned all pages of the Sale Catalogue for us. Please click the following links for the actual pages.
Link1
Link2
Link3
Link4
Link5
Link6
Link7
Link8
Link9
Link10
Link11
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Lord Wedgwood Charity shines in Birmingham, AL
Our friend Piers, Lord Wedgwood started a charity some time back and it is currently in the news. Click the title of this Post to see what it's all about. And while we're on the topic of Birmingham, be sure to remember to try to fit a trip to that beautiful city into your travel itinerary; the largest collection of Wedgwood in our hemisphere is now located there at the Birmingham Museum of Art. There is a lot to see and do there, so check out Vulcan and the Wedgwood! Update, click here to see a more recent article about the wonderful good Lord Wedgwood's Charity has accomplished for Birmingham and the whole state of Alabama!
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