A Pair of Derby Porcelain Vases

£4,900

SOLD

A pair of Derby porcelain vases, each with central cartouche: the first depicting Kirnstall Abbey Yorkshire; the second showing a view near Derby.

The Derby factory was founded on Nottingham Road around 1745. The story began with an entrepreneur named Andrew Planche, who migrated from France to England to escape the religious suppression of the Huguenots. A contemporary account described him as being a foreigner in very poor circumstances. In 1745, he was only 17 years old.

Andrew Planche experimented with ingredients which he hoped would produce a similar material to that being successfully developed at Meissen in Germany.

In 1756 William Dewsbury, who had previously worked as a porcelain decorator in London, brought his considerable business acumen to the venture. A local banker John Heath contributed the financial backing.

The Public Advertiser first mentioned the Derby Factory in December 1756, urging readers to participate to an auction sale in London, sponsored by the Derby Porcelain Manufactory.

Derby quickly became on of the most important sites of English porcelain manufacturing and had become eponymous with the production of exceptional quality porcelain in the early 1750s. Many of the early figures and patterns were taken from paintings, drawings and sculpture from China and later Japan. The flower spray, adapted from Japanese porcelain of the 17th Century survives today at many factories and on many differing bodies.

This pair of vases was made in the late Regency Period. The campaign vase is an entirely Classical form and the gilded decoration is typical of ornament from circa 1830.

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