ENGLISH BLACK BASALT OVIFORM TWO-HANDLED VASE AND A WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY BASE

ENGLISH BLACK BASALT OVIFORM TWO-HANDLED VASE AND A WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY BASE circa 1769-1778, the base impressed uppercase Wedgwood & Bentley : Etruria circular mark; the vase probably by Humphrey Palmer (active 1760â 78), the vertically striated engine-turned oviform body surmounted by an acorn finial, the horizontal leaf-molded band flanked by satyr mask handles with tightly curled horns, on a circular socle and square base, h: 13 1/4 in.

Provenance: With William Rau Antiques, New Orleans, LA, 1986.
Jeffrey Milkins Collection, no. 73.

Catalogue Note:
For a similar black basalt vase marked and identified as H. Palmer, Hanley, circa 1769-1778, see Diana Edwards, 'Black Basalt: Wedgwood and Contemporary Manufacturers', p. 44, fig. 12. Humphrey Palmer was a producer of black basalt and a contemporary rival of Josiah Wedgwood's. The present form is strikingly similar to that listed as shape no. 26 in the Wedgwood â Shape Bookâ , and generally includes a central band molded with swags. Both models are based on a print design by Friedrich Kirschner (1748-1789), which includes a design adaptations for the vessel functioning as a watch stand. For a Wedgwood pair from the Buten Collection, now at the Birmingham Museum of Art, see Brian Gallagher, â Classic Blackâ Mint Museum, exhibition, catalogue, p. 210, no. 75. For a similar example from the Victor & Muriel Polikoff Collection see, Skinner, Boston, 13 July 2017, sale 3020B, lot 80. For a solid agateware example, with a beaded central band, formerly in the collection of W.E. Darwin (son of Charles Darwin and great-grandson of Josiah Wedgwood) see, The Victoria & Albert Museum, accession no. CIRC.1&A-1923.

Friedrich Kirschner (Bayreuth, 1748-1789 Augsburg) is recorded as an engraver, painter of miniatures and as a decorator at the Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory (see the Metropolitan Museum, New York for a Ludwigsburg footed milk-jug, attributed to his hand, accession no. 42.205.270).