WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY BLACK BASALT LION HEAD HANDLED VASE

WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY BLACK BASALT LION HEAD HANDLED VASE circa 1775, impressed Wedgwood & Bentley : Etruria circular mark, informed by a design by Jacques Stella, recorded as shape no. 1399, of bottle form, the vertical engine-turned body and banded trumpet neck, flanked by tall lion head handles with gaping mask terminals, set on a berried laurel band, above a socle foot molded with stiff leaf-tips and square base, h: 16 1/2 in.

Provenance: Purportedly Colonel Maurice H. Grant Collection, no. 50. (tape label).
J.D. & Louise Trabue Collection.
Sotheby's, New York, 6 April 1988, lot 3
Jeffrey Milkins Collection, no. 102.

Catalogue Note:
For similar examples, reference the Spak Collection, sold Skinner, Boston 13 July 2019, lot 140 and The Lloyd J. Bleier Collection, sold Skinner, Boston, 25 April 2003, sale 2191, lot 124.

Exhibitions: Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, 'Classic Black: The Basalt Sculpture of Wedgwood and His Contemporaries, 9 February 2020 - 3 January 3, 2021, no. 44.

Literature: Colonel Maurice H. Grant, 'Makers of Black Basaltes', first published 1910, p. 79, pl. XX, fig. 2 (author's collection).

Brian Gallagher, 'Classic Black', op cit. exhibition catalogue, p. 148-149, no. 44. Here the author discusses the elemental inspiration of Jacques Stella's design, see 'Livres de Vases', pl. 2.