Timothy Wilson, Matthew Winterbottom and Francesca Leoni have asserted their moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
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ISBN: 978-1-910807-73-6
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Published with the support of the Ceramica-Stiftung, Basel
Introduction
Timothy Wilson’s catalogue Italian Maiolica and Europe (2017), included the whole of the Ashmolean Museum’s collections of post-Classical Italian pottery up to the date of publication. It also included an extensive selection of pieces from Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Low Countries, England, and Mexico to illustrate the spread of tin-glaze pottery in Europe from the fourteenth century onwards and the positive impact of skilled immigration on technology transfer and creativity. Nearly a third of the 287 items included had been acquired for the Museum since 1990.
Since 2017, the Museum has continued to enrich and extend its collections of Italian maiolica, French faience, and other wares related to the themes of the 2017 catalogue, mainly through the generosity of its friends and supporters and through the British Government’s admirable system by which works of art can be accepted in lieu of inheritance tax.1
A particular theme has been in the post-Renaissance development of the technique of metallic lustre, culminating in the brilliant bowl by the contemporary Iranian potter Abbas Akbari and the work of three contemporary European exponents.2
The period has seen a dramatic growth in the Ashmolean’s collections of nineteenth-century decorative arts, mainly, but not exclusively, English, in great part through the support of Barrie and Deedee Wigmore of New York City. In the context of the present publication, pride of place is taken by the work of William De Morgan, the multi-talented artist who single-handedly created a revival in England of the traditional technique of reduced-pigment lustre. At the time of writing, the Museum has on indefinite loan an extensive collection of De Morgan pottery from the De Morgan Foundation. Added to the collection, and included in this publication, are nine fine examples of De Morgan pottery (six of them lustred), two examples of the so-called ‘faience’ made at the Doulton Studio at Lambeth, and two pieces, in ‘Persian’ style, of the ‘faience’ produced by the Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds, as well as two tiles of the colossally successful ‘majolica’ developed by Minton’s of Stoke-on-Trent around 1850.
The present publication describes 61 of these acquisitions and so constitutes a supplementary volume to the 2017 catalogue. Entries nos 14, 18, and 43–59 have been written by Matthew Winterbottom; no.61 is by Francesca Leoni; the remainder are by Timothy Wilson.
In the same period, the Ashmolean collections have been enriched by other important acquisitions of European ceramics that fall outside the scope of the present publi-
Opposite: no.52
cation. These include a uniquely magnificent example of Vauxhall porcelain accepted by H. M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax on the estate of Anthony Du Boulay, in accordance with his wishes;3 and thirteen examples of early English salt-glazed stoneware from the collection of Jonathan Horne, accepted by H. M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax on the estate of Mrs Rachael Horne.4 In both cases, the Museum enormously appreciates the good will of the collectors involved and their heirs and executors. Gifts of English porcelain in the same period include two rare and delightful saucers of the group marked A, which is perhaps the very earliest English porcelain but which, despite evident links to the Bow factory, remains in many respects mysterious, presented by John Mallet in memory of Robert Charleston;5 and a Bow porcelain sauceboat of c.1750 imitating a contemporary London silver shape presented by Dinah Reynolds in memory of the Rev. John Reynolds.6
The present publication has been supported by a munificent grant from the Ceramica-Stiftung, Basel. We also warmly thank the late Martin Foley (Mexico City), Londa Weisman (New York City and Vermont), and a supporter who wishes to remain anonymous for sponsorship of printing. We are happy that it is supported by and published in association with the dynamic Oxford Ceramics Group.
Enlargeable images of all the pieces in this volume and the 2017 one are, or will be as soon as possible, on the Ashmolean website: https://ashmolean.org/collections-online. Addenda and corrigenda to the 2017 catalogue can be found on the web pages https://timothywilson.co.uk/publications.
Apart from those thanked in individual entries, we thank for help in various ways: Catherine Casley, Stephen Hebron, Carrie Hickman, Declan McCarthy, Dana Macmillan, Jody Wilkie, and Jane Wilson.
1 In managing these and numerous other acceptance in lieu (AIL) cases, the Museum has cause to be grateful over many years for the wisdom, pragmatism, and professionalism of two wonderful public servants working for Arts Council England, Gerry McQuillan and Anastasia Tennant, as well as their successors.
2 For the techniques and terminology of lustreware, see Caiger-Smith 1991, especially p.17.
3 Ashmolean Museum, WA 2024.15; see Cultural Gifts and Acceptance in Lieu Report 2024, no.18; Massey 2024.
4 Ashmolean Museum, WA 2025.15-27; see Cultural Gifts and Acceptance in Lieu Report 2024, no.29; Hildyard 2025.
5 Ashmolean Museum, WA 2024.13 and 14; see Mallet 2024, pp.26–33.
6 Ashmolean Museum, WA 2015.7; see Oxford Ceramics Group Newsletter 60 (October 2024), p.23, fig.3.
TITALY
hree pieces of Italian maiolica from the collection of the eminent Minoan archaeologist Sinclair Hood (1917–2021) were accepted by H. M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax in 2022 and allocated to the Ashmolean according to Mr Hood’s wishes. They were already on loan to the Museum and were published (as promised acquisitions) in Italian Maiolica and Europe: a plate with Amphiaraus,
Polynices, and Eriphyle by Francesco Xanto Avelli, cat.59 (now WA 2022.700); a plate with Jupiter and Semele by Francesco Durantino, cat.65 (now WA 2022.701, illustrated on the facing page); and a small Deruta or more probably Orvieto plate, cat.100 (now WA 2022.702).7 They are not described again here.
7 See Cultural Gifts Scheme and Acceptance in Lieu Report 2022, no.26; Burlington Magazine 166 (December 2024), pp.4–5, no.8.
Opposite: fig.1 Jupiter and Semele by Francesco Durantino, Urbino c.1542.
Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax from the estate of Sinclair Hood and allocated to the Ashmolean, WA 2022.701
Opposite: detail of no.33
FRANCE
Flask with birds, insects, and flowers
Nevers, workshop of Antoine Conrade, c.1640–48
Bequeathed by Sidney R. Knafel, received 2023, WA 2023.133.
Tin-glazed earthenware.
Height: 42 cm
Condition: probably some repairs, especially on and around the cap, but the extent not clearly ascertained.
Provenance: acquired by Mr Knafel from Camille Leprince, Paris, after 2016.
Bibliography: none
A large flask of fat pilgrim-flask shape, with two handles on each side approximating to the form of serpents. The cap is attached by a screw fitting; the body is painted with a dense textile-like pattern of birds, butterflies, insects, and flowers, while the neck is decorated with panels of flowers. The flat, unglazed base has holes in the flange under the handles.
Antoine Conrade, a member of the Corrado family of potters from Liguria, became the most successful member of his family of tin-glaze potters at Nevers and was appointed fayencier ordinaire to the young King Louis XIV in 1644. He died in 1648.
Among the production of Antoine’s workshop in the 1640s was a series of pieces, mainly plates, densely decorated in blue with naturalistic plants and creatures in a style broadly describable as ‘orientalizing’. Similar decoration was practised in Liguria and is known by Italian scholars as calligrafico naturalistico.150 Several plates are marked de Conrade a Nevers, the ‘de’ suggesting they date from after Antoine Conrade was ennobled in 1644.151 An unusually elaborate plate in this style in the British Museum is unmarked but appears to be dated 1644.152 This flask is the only piece of the shape with this decoration recorded and one of the most ambitious examples of it altogether.
150 For example Ausenda 2000, nos 368–9. Comparable decoration was carried out in Deruta; see Ausenda 2000, nos 92–3, as by the Maestro calligrafico.
151 Rosen 2009, pp.195–200.
152 British Museum, BEP, 1989,0706.1; the authenticity of this plate has been disputed.
Opposite: detail of no.48
ENGLAND
Sundragon dish
Probably Chelsea, William De Morgan’s Orange House Pottery, c.1881 Presented by the Thompson family, 2021. WA 2022.16.
Earthenware dish painted in ruby lustre on a pink ground with a winged dragon flying in front of a rising or setting sun. Surrounding border of scale work. Reverse painted with a scale border in ruby lustre on a pink ground; centre with a spiral scroll. Unmarked.
Diameter: 33.5 cm
Condition: good
Provenance: probably Reginald Campbell Thompson, nephew of William De Morgan; then by descent; presented by his grandchildren to the Museum.
A similar dragon in front of a rising or setting sun, in a 1881 design for a dish by De Morgan, in the V&A, was called a ‘Sundragon’ by the artist (fig.15).194 The scale work border is derived from sixteenth-century Gubbio maiolica.
Manises, painted by Abbas Akbari in the workshop of Arturo Mora, 2019
Presented by Abbas Akbari, EA 2020.162.
Signed in lustre on the base in Persian with the Islamic date 1398; and in Latin script, A.A 2019.
Diameter: 43 cm
Bibliography: Leoni 2021.
Abbas Akbari (b.1971) is one of Iran’s leading contemporary ceramic artists and a witness to the centuries-old tradition of lustreware, which established his country’s international artistic prestige centuries before being adopted across Europe.208 This technique, first experimented on tin-glazed vessels in
tenth-century Iraq, reached its technical and artistic peak in the city of Kashan in the twelfth century, resulting in a wealth of vessels and architectural decoration that were avidly acquired by European collectors from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards.
Working in this very city eight centuries later, Akbari is part of a group of contemporary artists who are now reviving this technique, infusing it with modern content and relevance whilst also looking at its global journey and legacy.
Made during a residency in Spain with fellow pottery artist and lustre virtuoso Arturo Mora (see no.60), this handsome bowl merges past and present. Its main decorative motif, three energetic pseudoepigraphic bands, echoes Persian and Arabic inscriptions traditionally found on medieval lustre vessels but reinterpreted in contemporary form. The meaning and legibility of the words are here abandoned in favour of their visual quality and decorative impact, turning their fractured syllables into pure abstraction.
208 There is a biographical note in Sannipoli 2018.
