“The frieze (three feet in height) of the billiard-room represents, in four separate groupings on the four sides of the apartment, the sports of the British race; one side being devoted to ‘Health,’ in which youthful games conducing to that essential, from infancy, with its doll and other playthings, to boyhood and youthhood, with hoop, cricket, skating, curling, snowballing, and so on; another to ‘Strength,’ with its central allegorical figure and groups representing pole-leaping, shot-throwing, wrestling, football, hockey, boxing, &c.; a third to ‘Courage,’ a central allegorical figure supported by genii, the one proclaiming, and the other crowning, deeds of heroism in the army, in saving lives from shipwreck, fire, and other casualties, and the wild sports of our Eastern empire and North American colonies; and the fourth to ‘Fortitude,’ in which the central group surrounding the allegorical figure is composed of lifelike portraits of such men as Livingstone, Burton, McClintock, Layard, and others; the remaining portions showing athletes contesting in a foot-race, and crews in a boat-race. The friezes of this room, painted in monochrome, are the work of Mr. R. J. Abraham (son of the Art-director of the works), who recently won the Art-Union prize, and is a gold medallist, and Mr. Besche, a skilful artist, whose works are in high repute. The frieze of the heating-room of the Turkish baths, which is lined in a precisely similar style to the other, is entirely composed of tropical plants and flowers, arranged in a masterly and effective manner, and painted, even to the most minute detail, with consummate skill and with true artistic feeling. This frieze, which is painted in sepia with its fullest and best effect, is entirely the work of Mr. Hürten, and is a worthy example of his pencil both in arrangement and in treatment. The whole of the plants represented are, without an exception, studies from nature, sketched and arranged for this special purpose from the plants themselves in the magnificent conservatories of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth; and they are in each individual instance reproduced with pre-Raphaelite accuracy and precision.
“The friezes are masterpieces of Art as well as of manipulative skill. They reflect the highest credit on Messrs. Copeland and their Art-director, Mr. Abraham, by whom they have been produced, and who have thus inaugurated a new, and what we pronounce to be a successful style, of internal decoration—one that is sure to be followed in many a mansion and home of taste in our country and abroad. Mr. Macfarlane will have reason to be proud of his acquisition, and has the satisfaction of feeling, that with the aid of Messrs. Copeland and their skilled staff of artists, he has originated a novel feature in Art-decoration, and carried it to an enviably successful issue. Messrs. Copeland are renowned for the excellence of their work and for the true artistic feeling and skill which characterise everything that passes from their hands, and their present productions will, if that be possible, add to their celebrity.”
Tiles for flower-boxes, lily-pans, garden-seats, slabs for chimney-pieces, table-tops, fire-places, &c., and for every other purpose, as well as door-plates, are also largely produced and highly decorated.
In Parian—the next best material to marble—statuary and busts, as well as other objects, are extensively made. This is another speciality of the firm, and one the discovery of which belongs to them. It is, in fact, the development of the old and ever-famous Derby biscuit ware,[40] rendered finer and more commercially, as well as artistically, available by the careful attention of the Messrs. Copeland. It was introduced by them about 1846, and is said to have been then made at the suggestion of Gibson the sculptor; from that time to the present it has been extensively manufactured by every house—by Copeland’s, perhaps, more extensively than any other. Among the more recent of their finest works in Parian, are the “Infancy of Jupiter,” “Lady Godiva,” “Nora Creina,” the “Flute-player,” the “Reading Girl,” busts of “A Mother” and of “Love,” all by Monti; “Young England” and “Young England’s Sister,” a very charming pair by Halse; a “Shepherd Boy,” “Spring,” and “Summer,” by L. A. Malampre; and “Master Tom” and “On the Sea-Shore,” by Joseph Durham, R.A. Among their other special works, Foley’s “Ino and Bacchus,” Durham’s “Chastity” and “Santa Filomena,” Monti’s “Night” and “Morning,” and a score or two others, are brilliant examples. Besides figures, groups, and busts, a large number of other beautiful objects of various kinds are produced in Parian.
Figs. 166 to 168.—Copeland’s Parian Figures.
The more ordinary classes of goods for general use and consumption are all of good quality, whether produced in the ordinary earthenware, the stoneware, or any other kind of body, and in all these classes Messrs. Copeland are very large producers. Their “crown ware” has so good a body as to stand the heat of the hard kiln, and thus to take the richest tints of crimson, &c. The ship fittings—the Atlantic washtop slab especially—are considered to be among the best produced. It ought also to be added, that Messrs. Copeland were the first to introduce those elegant and most convenient novelties, “Gordon Trays,” which they produce in a variety of forms.
Fig. 169 and 170.
