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| vase and cover Sevres porcelain 1770 |
On a recent
visit to London, I happened to drop by the Wallace Museum. It houses the finest collection of Sevres
porcelain in the world and to say it was a feast for the eyes is an
understatement. The cabinets grouped the
display into various stages of the French porcelain factory’s history from its
early days, then its subsequent move to Sevres, through the exuberance of
the 18th century Rococo period with the patronage of Louis XV and
his mistress Madame de Pompadour finially to the Revolutionary period. Some of the pieces were just jaw-droppingly
audacious- outrageous pairings of turquoise and candy pink- gilded and
decorated to the point of disintegration.
My pulse was racing and my brain was trying to take on board how human
beings could produce such craftsmanship and attention to detail, in the days of
no mechanization and technology as we know it. It was so exciting for me to
know that the human spirit could go that far in celebrating an art form,
exploring and expanding its language to its extremities and back again, and producing such visual perfection. Truly a
visual celebration of a time past, and one which I wholly recommend, well worth
visiting again and again.
And if you
have any more time to spare after all that... continue looking around because the museum’s
collection of Italian majolica ware dating from the second half of the fifteen
century to the late sixteenth century is another veritable feast for the eyes. The wine cooler dated 1574 is over 2 foot
long and that wide again! The incredible
thing about ceramics is that when they are in perfect condition, like they all are in this collection, then they look
exactly like they would have looked 500 odd years ago, aren’t we lucky!!!
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| Italian Maiolica Wine Cooler 1574 |
