Period: Regency
Maker: Job Ridgway & Sons
This Regency plate by Job Ridgway & Sons imitates in glazed porcelain the ‘Jasper’ stonewares of Wedgwood. It has an unusual pale lavender ground and the sprigged Classical reliefs are of high quality.
The central white relief depicts an episode in the tale of Cupid (Eros) and Psyche from The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses, a novel written by the 2nd Century Latin author Lucius Apuleius. One of her jealous elder sisters is whispering to Psyche and pointing to a sleeping Cupid. Psyche is holding aloft two of Cupid’s arrows while her other sister takes out another arrow from its quiver.
A formal chain adorns in relief the cavetto. The lip is decorated with sprigged ferns.
Condition Good. Although evident only on close inspection, there is a hairline crack extending inward from the outer edge towards the centre. Some gilt rubbing on the outer edge. Two sprigged ferns are missing their tips. The central relief has some firing cracks, common on Job Ridgway sprigging. In some areas on the unmarked base, the lavender-tinted glaze is missing or too thinly applied.
Diameter: 22.6 cm
Net weight: 368 g
Medium: Bone china (porcelain)
Origin: Cauldon Place, Stoke-on-Trent, England
See Ridgway pottery at Cauldon Place in Makers & Artists for background on the factory
