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Two single-handled black vessels with figures holding the spouts.

Both vessels have fluted bases on low blocks. They widen into platforms upon which figures crouch with their arms wrapped around spouts, their heads in holes where the handle and spout join. There is an animal’s face on the front edge of each platform. The left vase has a leaf garland, the figure has scaled tentacles, and the animal seems to be a seal with long hair that the figure holds like reins. The left vessel has a grapevine garland, the figure has furred legs, and the animal in front has horns that are held by the figure.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1230.A
People
Wedgwood, British (founded 1759 )
Designed by John Flaxman, Sr., British (Buckingham, England 1726 - 1795 London, England)
Title
"Sacred to Neptune" Water Ewer with a Triton Handle
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Water Ewer with Triton
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
after 1780
Places
Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom, England, Etruria
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/229692

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black basalt
Technique
Basaltes ware
Dimensions
40.3 x 20.9 x 16.5 cm (15 7/8 x 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: bottom of base, incised: 236 [=Wedgwood catalogue number]
  • manufacturer's mark: bottom of base, impressed: WEDGWOOD
  • inscription: bottom of base, impressed: [V or upper half of X?]
  • gallery label: bottom, black ink and paper, printed and handwritten: [printed:] F. RATHBONE / 20 Alfred Place West / South Kensington, / LONDON, S.W. / [handwritten:] Flaxman's Wine / & Water vases / Wedgwood / 1765 period
  • label: bottom, black ink and paper, handwritten: 31

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Frederick Rathbone, London, England], sold; to Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, NY, 1914, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1914.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1230.A
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Description
Triton at neck of ewer is grasping fins of sea monster; garlands of aquatic foliage in relief around body of ewer; circle of leaves across center; pointed leaves at lower half of body; square plinth with relief design of vines.

Publication History

  • Jean Gorely, "The Winthrop Collection", Old Wedgwood, Wellesley Press, Inc. (Wellesley, MA, 1943), no. 10, pp. 132-139, p. 137
  • Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), no. 83, p. 34
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 216-217, no. 139
  • Casey Monahan, "'If I offer you too much you have the remedy by declining it!:' Frederick Rathbone and the Grenville Lindall Winthrop Collection of Wedgwood at the Harvard Art Museums", Proceedings of the Sixty-Fourth Annual Wedgwood International Seminar, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, 2019), pp. 33-43, p. 34

Exhibition History

  • Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/04/1944 - 09/03/1944
  • Sublimations: Art and Sensuality in the 19th Century, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/13/1996 - 07/21/2002
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 03/01/2025

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu