This is a pair of Great Britain gilded
porcelain vases manufactured by The
New Hall Pottery in the early 18th
century. The company marks ‘N’s are
located on the lids of the vases. The New
Hall Pottery was founded in 1777 by
Hollins, Keeling, Turner, Warburton,
arrives, and Bagnall. The factory
suspended operations in 1825 after
making both pottery and porcelain.
They are an example of the Rococo style
as there are curvilinear handles with putti
heads on each side of the vases. The
Rococo began to make an appearance in
England between 1740 and 1750. Young
dainty fairies are painted at one side of
each vase, with seasonal flowers and
fruits. Fairies were commonly featured on
Romantic art and Renaissance literature
and were especially popular in the United
Kingdom during the Victorian and
Edwardian eras. Artist’s signature could
be found at the right bottom.
Putti in the meadows are depicted at the
other sides, these mythical little creatures
are playing between camellias and
daises. The iconography of putti is
deliberately unfixed, so that it is difficult
to tell the difference between putti,
cupids and various forms of angels. They
have no unique, immediately identifiable
attributes, so that putti may have many
meaning and roles in the context of art.
They are common to be associated with
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, romantic
and erotic; sometimes when they are
appeared on the religious context, they
are associated with heaven, peace,
prosperity, mirth and leisure.
These vases are mounted on gilded
bronze stands and handles using a
gilding technique called “ormolu”, The
best ormolu gliders are from in France in
the 18th and 19th century, they apply
finely ground, high- carat gold-mercury
amalgam to bronze objects and for
objects finished in this way. True ormolu
is gilded by a process whereby powdered
gold is mixed with mercury, and the
resulting paste is brushed onto the cast
form. The whole is then fired at a
temperature that causes the mercury to
evaporate, leaving a gold deposit on the
surface. Finally, the gold is burnished or
matted to give the greatest effect of
metallic brilliance.
Reference:
Old And Sold Antiques Aution &
Marketplace (2019) “Guide To Pottery &
Porcelain Marks” http://www.oldandsold.co
m/pottery
/great
britain2.shtml Retrieved 2019-06-
10.
Silver, Carole B. (1999) Strange and
Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian
Consciousness. Oxford University Press.
p. 47 ISBN 0-19-512199-6.
