The masterpiece of Chelsea is the group of the “Music Lesson,” with its two accompanying pairs of figures symbolising the Four Seasons, made to form a garniture for the chimney-piece; a complete set is in the Schreiber Collection, where it stands as a veritable tour de force in porcelain. This set is the work of Roubiliac, whose initial “R” is stamped on all three pieces, the subject of the centre-piece being borrowed from L’Agréable Leçon by Boucher. Other examples of translation in the round from a painting or engraving are the dancing figures taken from Watteau’s Fêtes vénétiennes. Historical interest attaches to the pair of figures of the democratic hero John Wilkes and his champion, General Conway; they were doubtless modelled in 1764, when Conway sprang into popularity in consequence of the degradation with which he was punished for having spoken in Parliament on Wilkes’s behalf.
The later Chelsea figures of this class are usually so much decorated that their attractiveness is gone, but an example has been chosen for illustration in [Plate 22], which has suffered less than others in this respect, and is thoroughly characteristic of the style. The graceful allure of the shepherdess with her basket of flowers and kilted skirts will suffice as an excuse for the painter’s extravagance in the decoration of her raiment.
In its earlier stages the Chelsea firm depended for its vases and “useful” wares, as far as form was concerned, on the models offered by Oriental china, and by the work of contemporary London silversmiths. In decoration also, Oriental, particularly Japanese, patterns were closely followed. This lack of originality is atoned for in some measure by the added charm derived from the mellow surface of the soft Chelsea glazes, while the very defects in the painting due to the touch of a Western hand give a certain homeliness which endears the imitations to an English amateur. A beautiful example of this style is the hexagonal covered vase in the Schreiber Collection depicted in [Plate 23]. Both shape and decoration are copied with fidelity from an original of the school of the great Japanese, Kakiyemon. The perfect balance of the design and the harmony of the colouring are his, but the interpretation and the material in which it is embodied belong wholly to the Western potter; “Western” must be said advisedly, for it must be doubted whether English workmen had any but a minor part at Chelsea in its early days. Whether the “Japan patterns” were copied directly from Oriental wares (the designs in a few instances are Chinese, of the famille verte), or whether they were obtained through the medium of Meissen imitations of the Oriental, it would be difficult to decide; the latter would certainly be more easily obtainable in England. It is, however, interesting to observe that the vase here illustrated is an almost exact replica of a pair of Japanese vases at Hampton Court Palace, belonging to the collection formed probably by Queen Mary II. through the agency of the Dutch East India merchants; it is tempting to conjecture that the Chelsea artists may have been allowed access to the royal apartments for the purpose of making drawings for use at the works.
PLATE 22
Figure of a Shepherdess, Chelsea, about 1765. Height, 12½ in. Schreiber Collection.
No. 237. See p. [79].
Mark: an anchor in gold.
