Period: Regency
Maker: Davenport
These superb Davenport rose paintings from around 1820-25 have been much emulated by other makers but never surpassed. The full-blown pink roses make full use of the ‘wiping out’ method of flower painting first introduced by William Billingsley at Derby; only one shade of paint is used, with lighter shading obtained by wiping out with a colourless brush. The technique imparts delicacy and softness, as well as realism and perspective. Gilded leaves contrast with the naturalism of the blossoms and small rose buds.
Davenport’s factory in Longport, today’s Stoke-on-Trent, was in operation for almost a century, from around 1793 to 1887. Davenport produced an enormous range of ceramics and at its apogee was the largest pottery in the United Kingdom.
The shape of the teacup is called Etruscan. It was inspired by the shapes of ancient pottery discovered in Italy in the mid-18th Century and assumed to have come from the ancient kingdom of Etruria (many of the pots were from ancient Greece). Josiah Wedgwood was a prominent enthusiast and named his Stoke-on-Trent factory the Etruria Works.
The height of fashion for ‘Etruscan’ shapes in porcelain was between about 1817 and 1825. Cups have two types of handle: coiled serpents; or, as in this case, angular (‘hair-pin’) shapes.
The Davenport backstamp on both cup and saucer is a rare brown-coloured overglaze mark used ca.1815-1830. The pattern number, 703, is painted in small script on the base of the teacup.
Condition Almost pristine. A few light surface abrasions. The odd impurity from manufacture in the well of the saucer.
Teacup height: 4.9 cm; diameter: 9.5 cm; width with handle: 10.8 cm
Saucer diameter: 15.6 cm
Net weight: 285g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Longport, Staffordshire Potteries, England
