DR. BUCHAN.
C. JENKINSON.
Figs. 566 to 573.—Wedgwood Medallion Wares.
Fig. 574.—Group from the Portland Vase.
In 1786 the then recently deceased Duchess of Portland’s magnificent collection of antiquities and objects of virtu were sold by auction, and among other articles of matchless interest was the Barberini or Portland Vase. This vase Wedgwood determined to possess, and having bid up to about a thousand pounds against the Duke of Portland, his grace, on learning why it was wanted, very kindly offered, if he would forego bidding and permit him to purchase, he would place it in Wedgwood’s hands to copy as he thought proper. It was therefore knocked down to the Duke for £1,029, and handed to Wedgwood by him; this “inestimable jewel,” as he called it, remained in his hands more than twelve months. Of this vase Wedgwood produced fifty copies, which were subscribed for at fifty guineas each, but it is said that even this sum, £2,500, fell far short of the outlay incurred in making them. One of the first fifty is in the possession of Mr. Francis Wedgwood (where it will remain, it is hoped, with the first-thrown vases, as heirlooms); another is in the possession of the Duke of Sutherland, at Trentham; a third belongs to Sir D. C. Marjoribanks; a fourth is in the Mayer Museum; and others are at different collections. The body used for this vase was black jasper, and the figures, in their proper tone, were worked up and cut by the seal and gem engraver to the utmost possible degree of sharpness and finish. The original moulds are still in existence, and from them Messrs. Wedgwood still produce their famed Portland vases, both with a black, and with deep, or light, blue ground.[54]
In 1786 Wedgwood was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in the following year the sixth edition of his Catalogue contained for the first time the addition of the “Bamboo” and “Mortar” bodies:—
“V.—Bamboo, or cane-coloured bisqué porcelain, of the same nature as No. 3.
“VI.—A porcelain bisqué of extreme hardness, little inferior to that of agate. This property, together with its resistance to the strongest acids and corrosives, and its impenetrability by every known species of liquids, adapts it happily for mortars and different kinds of chemical vessels.”