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Lot Essay
This impressive ‘Grecian urn’ vase is remarkable for the rarity of its blue john fluorspar and size, and its beauty and luminosity particularly when exposed to light. It appears to be in near original condition. Modelled after an Apulian krater vase of circa 330 BC, it is part of a select homogenous group of vases of large proportions that includes the renowned Shore vase, the first vase of this design created in 1815, now in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, and another at Renishaw Hall, near Sheffield. Blue john vases of this model were highly prized with the Shore vase exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition, over 35 years after it was first created.
THE SHORE VASE
The Shore vase was made in 1815 by James Shore of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, and at 21 in. high excluding a later black marble plinth was reputedly the largest ever made (T.D. Ford, Derbyshire Blue John, Ashbourne, 2000, p. 86). After Shore’s death it was purchased by John Mawe, another Blue John craftsman, who had ‘museum cum shops’ including the Old Royal Museum in Matlock Bath, Castleton, Cheltenham, Scarborough and London. When Mawe died in 1829 his premises and contents, including the Shore vase, passed to his former assistant, William Adam. Adam featured a design for the Shore vase in his Gem of the Peak, 3rd edition 1843, and 4th edition 1848, and on 23 December 1849 it was in the sale of the contents of the Old Royal Museum, and subsequently described as ‘the star of the establishment for which 200 guineas had been offered and refused’ (T.D. Ford, ‘The Largest Blue John Vases ever made’, Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, vol. 11, no. 5, Summer, 1992). Two years later the vase was entered into a lottery where it was won by a Mr. Jepson of Edensor Inn who the same year exhibited ‘a Blue John vase of extraordinary proportions’ at the 1851 Great Exhibition, presumably the Shore vase. A contemporary newspaper described it as ‘the largest of its kind in the World; it is capable of holding 10 gallons and is a beautiful object when lighted within’ (ibid.).
The vase then probably moved to Edensor Inn in the environs of Chatsworth House, which from 1912 was for recreational use for estate staff, and from 1958 was incorporated into the Estate offces. At some stage it was moved to Chatsworth House where it is now located in the Private Dining Room. The Shore vase according to contemporary illustrations initially had Blue John handles that have been replaced by Ashford Black Marble handles (ibid., p. 90).
THE RENISHAW VASE
The second comparable vase, the ‘Renishaw vase’ is in fact the largest of the ‘Grecian urn’ models measuring 22 inches from the base, excluding the black marble plinth of 7 ½ inches high. Unfortunately, there is no provenance for this vase except that it was acquired by Sir Reresby Sitwell from a London antique dealer probably in the late 1980s. Ford suggests that by the 1849 sale of Adam’s Old Royal Museum there may have been two vases of this type (T.D. Ford, ‘Postscript to The Largest Blue John Vases ever made’, Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, vol. 11, no. 6, Winter 1992).
THE DESIGN
The present vase is modelled on an Apulian krater vase dated circa 330 BC, illustrated in Pierre d'Hancarville's Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. Wm. Hamilton, Vol. I, published in Naples in 1766. Hamilton, a prolific collector of antiquities, in particular Greek and Roman vases, brought his collection to England in 1772; it was later sold to the British Museum. The model was fashionable and reproduced in other medium, in 1790 Josiah Wedgwood created comparable vases in black basalt, and in 1807, Thomas Hope included similar vases in bronze and gilt-metal in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, plates V and XII.
BLUE JOHN
This vase, similarly to the Shore vase at Chatsworth, and the Renishaw vase, is built up from a series of rings of blue john fitted one above the other. The stone of the vase at Chatsworth comes from the Bull Beef Vein, mined in the Blue John Cavern in the Treak Cliff hills, Derbyshire. Blue john vases of these proportions are remarkable, and rare because it is difficult to extract large slabs of the fluorspar from the caverns and mines of Treak Cliff. The deposits, which occur in voids in the Boulder Bed and in ancient caves in the underlying Carboniferous Limestone are usually less than 4 inches (10 cm.) thick although occasionally the linings meet and fuse to create nodules or ‘double stones’ up to 8 inches (20 cm.) (Ford, op. cit., p. 264). The dimensions of the Shore vase are 21 inches (53 cm.) to the top of the handles, and 12 inches (30 cm.) wide across the handles, while the Renishaw vase is 22 inches (cm.) by 14 ½ inches (37 cm.) wide.
COMPARABLES
A related example of this model of Blue John krater vase of comparable dimensions is in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum. Another, measuring 19 in. (48.3 cm.) high (without the plinth), was sold anonymously Sotheby’s, New York, 7 April 2004, lot 159 ($243,200 including premium) and again, the Property of Princeton University, Sotheby’s, New York, 27 January 2012, lot 4 ($338,500 including premium).
THE SHORE VASE
The Shore vase was made in 1815 by James Shore of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, and at 21 in. high excluding a later black marble plinth was reputedly the largest ever made (T.D. Ford, Derbyshire Blue John, Ashbourne, 2000, p. 86). After Shore’s death it was purchased by John Mawe, another Blue John craftsman, who had ‘museum cum shops’ including the Old Royal Museum in Matlock Bath, Castleton, Cheltenham, Scarborough and London. When Mawe died in 1829 his premises and contents, including the Shore vase, passed to his former assistant, William Adam. Adam featured a design for the Shore vase in his Gem of the Peak, 3rd edition 1843, and 4th edition 1848, and on 23 December 1849 it was in the sale of the contents of the Old Royal Museum, and subsequently described as ‘the star of the establishment for which 200 guineas had been offered and refused’ (T.D. Ford, ‘The Largest Blue John Vases ever made’, Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, vol. 11, no. 5, Summer, 1992). Two years later the vase was entered into a lottery where it was won by a Mr. Jepson of Edensor Inn who the same year exhibited ‘a Blue John vase of extraordinary proportions’ at the 1851 Great Exhibition, presumably the Shore vase. A contemporary newspaper described it as ‘the largest of its kind in the World; it is capable of holding 10 gallons and is a beautiful object when lighted within’ (ibid.).
The vase then probably moved to Edensor Inn in the environs of Chatsworth House, which from 1912 was for recreational use for estate staff, and from 1958 was incorporated into the Estate offces. At some stage it was moved to Chatsworth House where it is now located in the Private Dining Room. The Shore vase according to contemporary illustrations initially had Blue John handles that have been replaced by Ashford Black Marble handles (ibid., p. 90).
THE RENISHAW VASE
The second comparable vase, the ‘Renishaw vase’ is in fact the largest of the ‘Grecian urn’ models measuring 22 inches from the base, excluding the black marble plinth of 7 ½ inches high. Unfortunately, there is no provenance for this vase except that it was acquired by Sir Reresby Sitwell from a London antique dealer probably in the late 1980s. Ford suggests that by the 1849 sale of Adam’s Old Royal Museum there may have been two vases of this type (T.D. Ford, ‘Postscript to The Largest Blue John Vases ever made’, Bulletin of the Peak District Mines Historical Society, vol. 11, no. 6, Winter 1992).
THE DESIGN
The present vase is modelled on an Apulian krater vase dated circa 330 BC, illustrated in Pierre d'Hancarville's Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. Wm. Hamilton, Vol. I, published in Naples in 1766. Hamilton, a prolific collector of antiquities, in particular Greek and Roman vases, brought his collection to England in 1772; it was later sold to the British Museum. The model was fashionable and reproduced in other medium, in 1790 Josiah Wedgwood created comparable vases in black basalt, and in 1807, Thomas Hope included similar vases in bronze and gilt-metal in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, plates V and XII.
BLUE JOHN
This vase, similarly to the Shore vase at Chatsworth, and the Renishaw vase, is built up from a series of rings of blue john fitted one above the other. The stone of the vase at Chatsworth comes from the Bull Beef Vein, mined in the Blue John Cavern in the Treak Cliff hills, Derbyshire. Blue john vases of these proportions are remarkable, and rare because it is difficult to extract large slabs of the fluorspar from the caverns and mines of Treak Cliff. The deposits, which occur in voids in the Boulder Bed and in ancient caves in the underlying Carboniferous Limestone are usually less than 4 inches (10 cm.) thick although occasionally the linings meet and fuse to create nodules or ‘double stones’ up to 8 inches (20 cm.) (Ford, op. cit., p. 264). The dimensions of the Shore vase are 21 inches (53 cm.) to the top of the handles, and 12 inches (30 cm.) wide across the handles, while the Renishaw vase is 22 inches (cm.) by 14 ½ inches (37 cm.) wide.
COMPARABLES
A related example of this model of Blue John krater vase of comparable dimensions is in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum. Another, measuring 19 in. (48.3 cm.) high (without the plinth), was sold anonymously Sotheby’s, New York, 7 April 2004, lot 159 ($243,200 including premium) and again, the Property of Princeton University, Sotheby’s, New York, 27 January 2012, lot 4 ($338,500 including premium).