19th Century Copeland Spode Greek Tazza

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A brightly colored Neoclassical tazza or cake plate in the 'Greek' pattern made by Copeland Spode in the late 19th … Read more A brightly colored Neoclassical tazza or cake plate in the 'Greek' pattern made by Copeland Spode in the late 19th century.

This tazza, in Copeland Spode’s ‘Greek’ pattern, illustrates a scene (‘Iphigenia Being Told of the Death of Agamemnon’) from the Trojan War which was taken from Wilhelm Tischbein’s 1791 catalog of the Hamilton collection. Blue and white is the most common colorway in the Greek pattern, although more unique color combinations such as the present brown, green, and yellow do exist and are rare.

Potters not only took inspiration from the designs in the Catalogue, but from the Ancient vessel shapes as well. Here, the tazza is modeled after a kylix, a form which in Ancient Greece was used as a drinking cup. Kylikes were decorated on both the exterior and the interior so that drinking could become a performative act: the exterior design would be revealed as the drinker lifted the cup to take a sip. Spode eschewed exterior decoration on this tazza, clearly meaning for this to be a decorative piece instead of a useful one.

A dish such as this one would have appealed to both upper and middling classes of consumers: the former, as a reminder of their Grand Tour travels and a celebration of their own cosmopolitanism; the latter, as an indicator of those high-class morales of social refinement and good taste. While middle classes perhaps could not undertake a Grand Tour of their own, objects like this bowl would have served to highlight the owner’s knowledge of the Classics and his or her heritage to a great Western civilization, some of the very ideals that Grand Tour travel promoted.

References:
Thomas Kirk, Outlines from the figures and compositions upon the Greek Roman and Etruscan vases of the late Sir William Hamilton, ed. William Miller (London: William Miller, 1804), p. 59.

Wilhelm Tischbein, Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases of Greek Workmanship Discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies now in the Possession of Sir William Hamilton (1791), vol. I, p. 18.

Dimensions: 11 1/4 in. Dm x 13 1/2 in. W x 4 1/4 in. H

Condition: Excellent. See less