A pair of Mintons exhibition vases 1878

Estimate

30,000 - 40,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

height 20 1/2 in.
52 cm

designed by John Moyr Smith and painted by A. Green, signed, on each side with a frieze of dancing classical figures entitled PYRRHIC DANCE, A LYPIAN DITTY, A PHRYGIAN CHANT and CARYATIC DANCE, between colorful and elaborately patterned borders, possibly designed by Christopher Dresser, beneath a pair of loop handles at the rim, impressed MINTONS, year cypher and shape number 1653, puce printed ribbon and prince of Wales feather marks Paris Exhibition 1878. Minor restoration to undersides of bases.

Exhibited

Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878

Literature

Joan Jones, Minton. The First Two Hundred Years of Design and Production, 1993, p. 108;

Catalogue Note

The original drawing by John Moyr Smith for the scene 'A Pyrrhic Dance' is illustrated by Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, The Dictionary of Minton, p. 302.

The vases are described by Joan Jones, op. cit. (in Literature above), who notes that the gilding on the frieze was executed by Dutton and Powner and that Moyr Smith was paid 20 pounds for his designs. The MInton archives also record that the cost of each vase to retailers was 95 guineas, a quite considerable sum.

Aaron Green, whose signature appears on the vases and who was presumably the actual decorator, was active at Mintons from the mid 1850s until 1895.