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Oceanus: EC.51-1943

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Object information

Current Location: Gallery 26 (Lower Marlay)

Titles

Oceanus

Maker(s)

Factory: Frankenthal Porcelain Factory
Modeller: Linck, Franz Conrad

Entities

Categories

Description

Hard-paste porcelain, partly silvered, painted in enamels, and gilt

Hard-paste porcelain, painted in shades of green, flesh pink, pink, red, mauve, grey enamels and silver (now oxydised to black). The figure stands on an approximately oval base with a scrolled edge. The underside is concave and has a support running from left to right down the middle. Oceanus stands on his left leg with his right leg advanced. He has his right hand on his hip, and his left arm outstretched in a commanding pose. His head is tilted back slightly and he looks to his left towards the viewer. He has grey hair and beard, black eyes and brows, pink cheeks, and red lips. His silvered cap is trimmed with green ribbon sea weed. He wears a tunic which leaves his right upper torso bare, and is longer at the back than at the front where it is above his knees. The tunic is silvered, and on the upper edge has a pale green turn back bound with a double rope of pearls, and on the lower edges is decorated with applied green 'moss' and five mauve shells.His left arm is covered by a silver sleeve trimmed with 'moss' which is held on by a garland of seaweed passing across his naked chest to his left hip. A long green cloak lined with pink and edged with 'moss' is draped over his left arm and extends over the base behind him. Round both legs he has garters of green weed with a black shell and a semi-circle of pearls on the front. The top of the base is strewn with moss, sea weed, one black shell and two pink shells, and the scrolls are picked out in gold.

Notes

History note: Purchased from Mr (Frank?) Stoner in London on 14 May 1917 with Thetis for £135 by Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, Trinity College, Cambridge; taken by Mrs W.D. Dickson on his death in accordance with the provisions of his Will.

Legal notes

Given by Mrs W.D. Dickson

Measurements and weight

Height: 27.8 cm
Width: 19.9 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Frankenthal ⪼ The Palatinate ⪼ Germany

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1943) by Dickson, W. D. (Frances Louisa), Mrs

Dating

18th Century, third quarter
Production date: circa AD 1765

Note

The Titan, Oceanus, was the son of Uranus and Gaia (Heaven and Earth). He married his sister Thetis or Tethys, and their progeny were the rivers and the nymphs of land and water.

This figure of Oceanus was probably derived from a design for a ballet costume by René Louis Boquet (1717-1914), probably for La victoire de Neptune, created at Stuttgart in 1763.

School or Style

Rococo

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamel silver
Foliage

Materials used in production

Glaze
Hard-paste porcelain

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Hard-paste porcelain, moulded in parts and assembled, with applied foliage and beads, glazed, painted in green, pink, flesh-pink, pale mauve, red, grey, and black enamels, the costume partly silvered, and the base lightly gilt
Glazing

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: N 2 N or N Z N
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Incised mark

Inscription present: CT in monogram with a dot below, under a crown

  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Painted underglaze blue
  • Type: Factory mark

Inscription present: half of a rectangular label with cut corners and a blue line round all but one side

  • Text: 5029b/Coloured Frank/enthal figure of/Oceanus/b. in London/May 14 1917/one of a pair
  • Location: On the base
  • Method of creation: Hand-written in black ink
  • Type: Label

Inscription present: circular white paper label printed with a black border with the name reserved in white, and inscribed in the centre with the provenance

  • Text: FRANCES L. DICKSON. printed KEPT/FROM/GLAISHER/COLL hand-written
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Printed in black and hand-written in black ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: EC.51-1943
Primary reference Number: 140439
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Sunday 18 June 2023 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Oceanus" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/140439 Accessed: 2024-03-29 14:23:17

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/140439 |title=Oceanus |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-29 14:23:17|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-140439

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa20/EC_51_1943.jpg"
        alt="Oceanus"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Oceanus</figcaption>
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