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George Owen: A recent discovery
by:
Andrew Morris
George Owen's mastery of reticulation resulted in the production of some of the most complicated ceramic objects ever made. Reticulating had to be done before firing when the clay was still wet, and is difficult to achieve because clay dries out quickly. A very complex vessel would have to be kept in a 'green', that is, wet state over a long period. Little is known about Owen's actual working methods since he was extremely secretive about his technique, as was usual for craftsmen of that period. What is known is he perfected the technique clandestinely, working after hours while in the employ of Royal Worcester. His extraordinary pieces made for Royal Worcester were sold to specialist collectors.
A recent discovery of a hand holding a reticulated vase by Owen brings new light to his oeuvre as it is a departure from his usual work. It incorporates the hand vase design, a popular model in the second half of the nineteenth century. This rare example reveals that Owen worked with glazed Parian. Other pieces decorated by Owen also included tinted inner liners in double-walled pieces and vases with coloured decoration all over. Many objects were intentionally left bare in the glazed white state, without the chased and burnished gilt enrichments for which his other pieces are celebrated.
The design for hand vases originated in the middle of the nineteenth century. Modelled after the hands of the wife of James Hadley (Worcester's then chief modeller), the old factory workers used to refer to it as 'Mrs Adley's 'and'.1 The Worcester Porcelain Museum has the original hand-drawn, hand-coloured designs for the hand vase in a Kerr & Binns Worcester pattern book dating to the 1850s. This pattern book contains at least 35 hands, each with different decorations, some rather elaborate. The decorators would have used these drawings as a guide to paint each hand vase with a specific motif.
The Museum indicated that other hands were also made using different profiles, including a variation with a hand holding a curved vase with an animal head. The 1850s pattern book containing the design for hand vase decoration number one is flanked by a registration diamond for 1864, confirming that shape was patented some years after its initial design. The original design drawing, which was submitted for patent protection, survives for the hand holding a vase. It is of a right hand wearing a bracelet. This became Royal Worcester class six (general class), shape 35 (hand vase), that is, 6/35, which also included the left hand.
Illustrated here are three fine production examples of 'Mrs Hadley's' left and right hands holding vases, each of which is lifelike in its treatment. This shape can be found in many colours including flesh tones, gilded or plain, and occasionally a hand-painted scene may embellish the upper vase section.
The recent discovery sheds light on a relatively unknown group of exquisite and exceedingly rare pieces pierced by George Owen. The 'Mrs Hadley' right-hand holding a vase, Worcester shape 6/35, is unusual because it is pierced by him. Although unmarked, the glazed Parian hand is identical to earlier tinted examples, using the mould lines as the basis for examination. The porcelain vase is set slightly higher and the vases top lip has been shortened and squared off during production, perhaps to assist Owen to cut the pattern more cleanly, given the complexity of the reticulating technique.
The fineness of this piece is reinforced by the double-walled porcelain vase, where only the outer wall has been perforated by Owen and the solid inner wall has been tinted a pale blue. The holes are smaller than one might see when a template is used, and upon inspection the obvious signs of Owen working freehand are evident. This is not a trial example or test piece because the inside of the inner porcelain vase has been skilfully glazed.
This piece is unsigned, which is unusual for Owen, whose work was usually signed 'G Owen', generally under the base. A few unsigned pieces, such as this, can however be assigned to Owen because of the superb technique.
Curator of the Worcester Porcelain Museum, Wendy Cook, confirmed that this piece was pierced by Owen and dated it to about the 1880s. The Museum has in its collection a double-walled example of a pierced sucrier with a blue inner liner made by him. Many of Owen's pieces were originally sold with blue or red glass liners, which are now lacking, presumably because they have either been broken or have become separated from the original vases.
Cook described production technique used in the manufacture of such vases. An inner liner was cast from china clay, which was stained blue, a colourless glaze was then applied and then fired. The inner liner was then attached to the outer shell made of cream coloured clay, which was then allowed to dry to a 'green' leather hard state before the reticulating was undertaken by Owen. The whole was then fired a second time. A fine example of this technique is a spill vase in the collection of the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum. Set on the claws of a bird of prey, it has a light blue solid inner liner, light blue beading and a light blue tint applied to the lower decorative shields.
George Owen was an extraordinary master craftsman and the greatest of all reticulators, taking the secrets of the technique with him to the grave. Although the method has never been reproduced with the same skill collectors are able to view his surviving works in museums or on occasion acquire pieces that may come up for sale, such as this newly discovered hand vase.
Notes
1 H Sandon, Royal Worcester Porcelain from 1862 to the Present Day (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1989), pp. 25, 179, colour illustration IV opposite p. 67. |
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