Vase

The vase is styled on an ancient amphora, a tall, slender clay vessel with an elongated body and two symmetrically placed handles on the sides. Amphorae were popular in antiquity and were used to store and transport wine, oil and honey.

The vessel comes from the English Wedgwood factory, which has become synonymous with jasperware, i.e., a ceramic travesty of antique layered glass. Wedgwood decided to make jasperware in bisque, i.e., unglazed porcelain. The artist's choice of this technical solution was dictated by the desire to make the products as similar as possible to their antique glass prototypes. Moreover, the perfectly elaborated details of Wedgwood's objects not only did not disappear under the glaze layer but were additionally highlighted by light and shadow. At this point, it is worth mentioning that although Wedgwood jasperware is mainly associated with white and blue products, the oldest of them had a background colour that the artist called Portland Blue, i.e., extinguished navy blue. Josiah Wedgwood found his direct inspiration in the so-called Portland Vase exhibited today in the British Museum. This vase, which contributed to Wedgwood's great career, is an ancient ash urn made of transparent dark blue glass overlaid with a relief of opaque white glass. To obtain the expected shade, Josiah Wedgwood made some three thousand attempts!

As the fashion for motifs taken from Greco-Roman mythology emerged in England and on the continent, and the reputation of the manufacture grew, the catalogue of types and forms of jasperware gradually expanded from decorative and utility vessels to jewellery such as porcelain cameos set in silver formed earrings, pendants and brooches. In addition, the increasingly fashionable Wedgwood ceramics began to be used to decorate furniture and architectural elements, including fireplace mantels.