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
No comments:
Post a Comment