A recent post on Facebook by a Majolica Society member made us wonder about that unique peculiarity of Wedgwood majolica, their animal transfer decorated series. We've posted the animal transfer decorated tiles previously in our post on Wedgwood majolica tiles, but never really looked at the other area in which these transfers were used, their dessert wares.
They were designed by Henry Hope Grealock in the first decade of Wedgwood's expansion into majolica. Let me begin by saying that all of these transfer decorated pieces are rare. We have only seen a handful of them over the years. In Maureen Batkin's 1982 book, Wedgwood Ceramics 1846-1959, she identifies at least twelve different designs. She further divides these twelve into two different series, the Game series and the Fresco Heads series.
The circa 1875 period of production fits squarely in the middle of the Aesthetic Movement, when there was great interest in ware with natural themes. The period also precedes the introduction of the Wedgwood Argenta line which was introduced in 1878. We have not seen these with Argenta coloration.
The Game series features various images relating to the hunt: quail, hunting dogs, pheasant, hare, squirrel and woodcock. We've only found examples of four of the designs on plates but you can see examples of the remaining designs here as tiles.
The second series Fresco Heads, printed with the Louis XV border, features various animal heads. Batkin identifies the plate as the Louis XV shape. The designs are: deer, tiger, ram, bull, dog and fox
The unusual nature of these transfer designs appeals to an avid specialty audience of collectors. When these animal transfer wares come up at auction they usually bring very good prices, selling in the $400+ range per plate.
This post has been updated since it was first posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment