Figs. 160 to 163.—Messrs. Copeland’s Vases.
One of the greatest improvements in ordinary earthenware which has been effected by this eminent firm, who have always exercised a laudable desire to keep pace with, or to be leaders of, the improved Art-taste of the age, is the production of what they appropriately term an “Ivory-tinted body.” In this kind of ware they produce table, dessert, and toilet services of every conceivable design, and of various degrees of decoration. In the dinner and dessert services the delicate, soft, warm tone of the ivory tint is peculiarly grateful to the eye, and has a charming effect when “set” out on the white linen cloth. The tone of colour which Messrs. Copeland have succeeded in producing has all the softness of the finest examples of old Wedgwood cream-coloured ware, but without its somewhat harsh yellowness. Nothing could be less grating to the eye of taste than this soft tint, and doubtless in many homes of taste the warm “ivory body” will take the place of the cold white of the general classes of earthenware. It only remains to say that in that peculiar body every variety of pattern, from the rich old Spode with its Eastern brilliant combinations of gold and rich patches of colour, down to the most ordinary painted borders, are made. One service which has particularly struck us as beyond average in excellence is the “Stork.” Those examples in which the pattern is in relief, and heightened in gold, are peculiarly rich and good. The shape of the tureens and vegetable-dishes are of great elegance and beauty. The ivory body is one of the greatest achievements of the period.
Figs. 164 and 165.
In porcelain, vases, tazzas, bottles, and other articles of every conceivable form, and decorated in an endless variety of ways both in painting, in alto-relievo figures and flowers, and in massive jewelling, gilding, and enamelling, are produced, and are of the most costly and elegant character. Services, both of the most sumptuous and severely simple character, are also produced in every style of art, and on every scale of cost.
And here it becomes necessary to say a word as to some of the achievements in colour of this firm. Of these, a new turquoise (which Messrs. Copeland have christened “Cerulean blue”) is the richest and fullest produced, and is remarkable for its brilliant intensity; the Sardinian green is also very good, and the vermilion finer and more rich than has at any time, or in any place, so far as my experience goes, been produced. This is especially apparent upon a Japanese dessert plate, where the decorations are upon pure enamel, requiring a very high degree of heat, and where the colours come out more brilliantly than on any other examples I have seen. On this plate, which is a chef-d’œuvre of Messrs. Copelands’ art, the border is purely Japanese, and the centre essentially English, but all equally perfect and equally beautiful; it is, in fact, an original and brilliant conception, true to the spirit and principles of Japanese design, but in no respect a copy of any of the productions of the artists of that nation. The birds are exquisitely painted by Weaver, one of the best painters of this class, and the remainder by artists of equal celebrity in their several walks of decoration.
The “Satsuma ware” produced by Messrs. Copeland is of the most exquisite beauty, and of rare excellence both in the matchless quality of the body, the peculiarly waxy and very lovely surface of the glaze, the pure taste which characterises its decoration, and admirable manipulation apparent in each piece. In this ware, as in others produced by the firm, it is a literal truism to say “perfection can no farther go!” Vases and other decorative articles are produced in this Satsuma ware, and take rank with the finest productions of any age or any country.
Messrs. Copeland and Son are large producers of plain, and painted, and enamelled tiles for internal decoration, and these, from the excellence they have attained in the “body,” and the skill displayed in design and in ornamentation, have become a speciality of the firm. They are produced in endless variety, and for every purpose, but one of the most striking and attractive novelties in this kind of mural decoration, is that of a continuous design for a whole room, as first attempted by them for Mr. Macfarlane. Of this speciality, I gave the following notice in the Art Journal for December, 1875:—
“One of the most pleasing, and, at the same time, novel and effective, adaptations of fictile art to internal mural decoration yet attempted, has just been successfully accomplished by Messrs. Copeland and Sons, of Stoke-upon-Trent. To this, having been favoured with a private view of the decorations, we desire to draw attention. The lining of entire rooms with wall-tiles is, of course, no new thing, but has been repeatedly done, and in a variety of styles, by different firms and at different periods; but it has been left to Messrs. Copeland to strike out an entirely new idea in the mode of treatment. Mr. Macfarlane, whose Art-productions in metal we have often commended in the pages of the Art Journal, has recently erected in Glasgow a magnificent mansion, which, as might be expected from a man of such extensive knowledge and such pure taste, will enshrine many works of high-class examples in various walks of Art. In several of the apartments of this mansion—the billiard and bathrooms, for instance—Mr. Macfarlane desired to introduce some new feature which should, if possible, inaugurate what might with propriety be called a nineteenth-century style of decoration. He therefore wisely consulted Messrs. Copeland, who, acting on his idea, prepared a series of designs which, while adhering faithfully to the classic laws of Art, were, both in subject and in treatment, strictly characteristic of the present day. The general design is a terra-cotta dado of full Indian red tone of colour, walls of pale celadon tint, and a frieze painted in monochrome, in continuous subjects apposite to the uses of the various rooms, which are thus covered with tiles, in one grand design, from floor to ceiling. The walls between the dado and frieze are covered, as just stated, with celadon tiles placed diagonally, with the joints made just sufficiently apparent to give a geometrical break to the surface, and so remove what otherwise might be a sameness in appearance; while those of the frieze (which are of a pale yellow-ground colour, well adapted for throwing out the figures, and which, when the room is lit up, disappears, and gives the effect of a luminous sky to the pictures) are placed horizontally, and their edges fitted with such mathematical precision and nicety that their joints are invisible. The whole of the tiles have a dead, or purely fresco surface, and are most perfect for the purpose for which they are intended; and from their peculiar hardness and other characteristics—the result of much anxious thought and experiment—are perfectly impervious to the action of damp, and cannot fail to be permanent.