Wedgwood and Beyond: English Ceramics from the Starr Collection

Wedgwood and Beyond: English Ceramics from the Starr Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 93. A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET HORACE CIRCA 1775 .

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET HORACE CIRCA 1775

Auction Closed

October 23, 06:38 PM GMT

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET HORACE CIRCA 1775


with classical drapery around the shoulders, mounted on a waisted circular socle, the reverse of the bust impressed HORACE, lowercase Wedgwood & Bentley, incised marks, the underside of the socle impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY.

Height 14⅜ in.

36.4 cm

Skinner Boston, July 17, 2004, lot 26

Gallagher, Ars Ceramica, 2019, no. 31, p. 16, fig. 6

Gallagher, op. cit., writes that Horace was one of the first bust models produced by Wedgwood & Bentley. Along with Cicero and George II, it is one of only three listed in the partners' first trade catalogue in 1773. The plaster cast for the present model in 1770 was supplied by plaster makers James Hoskins and Samuel Oliver. Gallagher further writes that the ultimate source is the Roman 17th century red porphyry bust in the collection of the Earls of Pembroke, Wilton House, most recently catalogued by Elliot Davies and Emanuela Tarizzo, The Wilton House, Horace the Poet of Porphyry & Cicero of Touchstone, Tomasso Brothers, London, 2018.