English Ceramics Exhibition Opened by Eric Knowles
Eric Knowles, Antiques Roadshow Expert opened the English Ceramics exhibition at Fairfax House this week.
Eric Knowles with the English Ceramics exhibition at Fairfax House. October 2007
Eric Knowles who opened the English Ceramics exhibition at Fairfax House this week described the exhibition as a veritable feast of fine English porcelain not to be missed!
Ceramics experts who have visited Rode Hall, a fine Georgian country house in Cheshire, all agree that its collection of English porcelain and pottery is one of the finest and most important still in private hands. Now there is the opportunity to see, for the first time, over 100 pieces from this historic collection in the English Ceramics, exhibition showing at Fairfax House in York between 22 October and 31 December 2007.
The exhibition has been sponsored by The Friends of Fairfax House with additional support from Bonhams Auctioneers. Director at Fairfax House, Peter Brown, is delighted to be able to exhibit part of this magnificent collection. He said: “We feel hugely privileged at Fairfax House that we will be able to display a large proportion of the Rode Hall collection. This is the first time Sir Richard Wilbraham has agreed to lend to a museum in this way and we look forward to welcoming visitors.”
The quintessentially English ceramics collection has been collected by successive generations of the Wilbraham family since the mid-eighteenth century, when the young heiress Mary Bootle (1734-1813) married Richard Wilbraham, MP for Chester. The family’s élite position in society and remarkable history of patronage effectively illustrates the development of England’s ceramic industry as, inspired by the Chinese armorial porcelain imported by her father, a captain and later Director in the East India Company, Mary became an enthusiastic collector of English porcelain.
Items from the important ‘botanical’ dessert service which Mary Bootle commissioned from the Derby porcelain factory in 1787 will be amongst the highlights of the English Ceramics exhibition at Fairfax House.
Decorated by William Billingsley, Derby’s most accomplished and innovative flower painter, this remarkably complete service boasts a total of 21 surviving dessert plates thought to have been painted to match the family’s set of Chelsea ‘Hans Sloane’ plates. Despite the best efforts of horticultural historians and ceramics experts, no printed source has yet been discovered for Billingsley’s eclectic mixture of flowers and plants, which include garden, wild and exotic species, and it is probable that he painted them from sketches made direct from nature while visiting grand estates in Derbyshire.
Rode’s proximity to Staffordshire enabled the Wilbraham family to develop lasting connections with the area’s pottery manufacturers, including Josiah Wedgwood who was invited to dine at Rode in 1771 ‘& see what ornaments will be suitable for a bookcase there’. Randle Wilbraham III (1773-1861), Mary Bootle’s second son, inherited his mother’s love of fine china. Still remaining in the collection at Rode are items he acquired as a member of the party accompanying the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, when he visited the Spode factory in Stoke in 1806.
The Wilbraham family also made purchases from the London retailers, Mortlocks, specialists in Coalport china. Items from a stunning cobalt blue and gold Japan-patterned Coalport dessert service, dating from the early 1800s, form a major set-piece table display in the English Ceramics exhibition. Equally at home in Fairfax House is a pretty Worcester tea service, decorated with a delicate Sèvres-style Feuille-de-Choux pattern, purchased by the family during the 1780s.
Amongst other items on display are the significant acquisitions made since 1980 by the current custodian of Rode Hall, Sir Richard Baker Wilbraham, 8th Bart. These include items of Chinese armorial porcelain, sold by a more profligate branch of the family over the centuries and recently bought back at auction; exceptional examples from Rode’s collection of rare and early teapots; and outstanding items of Chelsea, Bow, Worcester and Derby, all of which reflect and enhance the Wilbraham family’s early patronage of English porcelain.
English Ceramics also offers a rare opportunity to see some of the only complete set of seven Arts and Crafts pottery vases, created by Walter Crane for Maw & Co
in 1889. It was during one of his frequent visits to Rode Hall during the 1860s that Crane first tried his hand at ‘china painting’ and, through the family’s continuing contact with Wedgwood, received his first professional ceramic design commission.
A certain serendipity led to Sir Richard’s acquisition of his Maw & Co designs. Six of the seven stunning ruby lustre vases, which depict various allegories, myths and legends, were acquired when their owner, after thirty years’ collecting, reluctantly decided to part with them, convinced he would never find the final elusive vase. When the seventh vase unexpectedly surfaced at auction in 2006, Sir Richard made a successful bid, thereby securing it for the collection at Rode.
English Ceramics may be seen at Fairfax House, York, during normal house opening times, between 22 October – 31 December 2007. (Please note the house is closed on 24, 25, 26 December) Entrance to the exhibition is free with admission to Fairfax House.
Ceramics experts who have visited Rode Hall, a fine Georgian country house in Cheshire, all agree that its collection of English porcelain and pottery is one of the finest and most important still in private hands. Now there is the opportunity to see, for the first time, over 100 pieces from this historic collection in the English Ceramics, exhibition showing at Fairfax House in York between 22 October and 31 December 2007.
The exhibition has been sponsored by The Friends of Fairfax House with additional support from Bonhams Auctioneers. Director at Fairfax House, Peter Brown, is delighted to be able to exhibit part of this magnificent collection. He said: “We feel hugely privileged at Fairfax House that we will be able to display a large proportion of the Rode Hall collection. This is the first time Sir Richard Wilbraham has agreed to lend to a museum in this way and we look forward to welcoming visitors.”
The quintessentially English ceramics collection has been collected by successive generations of the Wilbraham family since the mid-eighteenth century, when the young heiress Mary Bootle (1734-1813) married Richard Wilbraham, MP for Chester. The family’s élite position in society and remarkable history of patronage effectively illustrates the development of England’s ceramic industry as, inspired by the Chinese armorial porcelain imported by her father, a captain and later Director in the East India Company, Mary became an enthusiastic collector of English porcelain.
Items from the important ‘botanical’ dessert service which Mary Bootle commissioned from the Derby porcelain factory in 1787 will be amongst the highlights of the English Ceramics exhibition at Fairfax House.
Decorated by William Billingsley, Derby’s most accomplished and innovative flower painter, this remarkably complete service boasts a total of 21 surviving dessert plates thought to have been painted to match the family’s set of Chelsea ‘Hans Sloane’ plates. Despite the best efforts of horticultural historians and ceramics experts, no printed source has yet been discovered for Billingsley’s eclectic mixture of flowers and plants, which include garden, wild and exotic species, and it is probable that he painted them from sketches made direct from nature while visiting grand estates in Derbyshire.
Rode’s proximity to Staffordshire enabled the Wilbraham family to develop lasting connections with the area’s pottery manufacturers, including Josiah Wedgwood who was invited to dine at Rode in 1771 ‘& see what ornaments will be suitable for a bookcase there’. Randle Wilbraham III (1773-1861), Mary Bootle’s second son, inherited his mother’s love of fine china. Still remaining in the collection at Rode are items he acquired as a member of the party accompanying the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV, when he visited the Spode factory in Stoke in 1806.
The Wilbraham family also made purchases from the London retailers, Mortlocks, specialists in Coalport china. Items from a stunning cobalt blue and gold Japan-patterned Coalport dessert service, dating from the early 1800s, form a major set-piece table display in the English Ceramics exhibition. Equally at home in Fairfax House is a pretty Worcester tea service, decorated with a delicate Sèvres-style Feuille-de-Choux pattern, purchased by the family during the 1780s.
Amongst other items on display are the significant acquisitions made since 1980 by the current custodian of Rode Hall, Sir Richard Baker Wilbraham, 8th Bart. These include items of Chinese armorial porcelain, sold by a more profligate branch of the family over the centuries and recently bought back at auction; exceptional examples from Rode’s collection of rare and early teapots; and outstanding items of Chelsea, Bow, Worcester and Derby, all of which reflect and enhance the Wilbraham family’s early patronage of English porcelain.
English Ceramics also offers a rare opportunity to see some of the only complete set of seven Arts and Crafts pottery vases, created by Walter Crane for Maw & Co
in 1889. It was during one of his frequent visits to Rode Hall during the 1860s that Crane first tried his hand at ‘china painting’ and, through the family’s continuing contact with Wedgwood, received his first professional ceramic design commission.
A certain serendipity led to Sir Richard’s acquisition of his Maw & Co designs. Six of the seven stunning ruby lustre vases, which depict various allegories, myths and legends, were acquired when their owner, after thirty years’ collecting, reluctantly decided to part with them, convinced he would never find the final elusive vase. When the seventh vase unexpectedly surfaced at auction in 2006, Sir Richard made a successful bid, thereby securing it for the collection at Rode.
English Ceramics may be seen at Fairfax House, York, during normal house opening times, between 22 October – 31 December 2007. (Please note the house is closed on 24, 25, 26 December) Entrance to the exhibition is free with admission to Fairfax House.