Venus and Cupid seated on a Dolphin
Factory:
Derby Porcelain Factory
Proprietor:
William Duesbury & Co.
Soft-paste porcelain figure of Venus and Cupid seated on a Dolphin painted in enamels and gilt.
Soft-paste porcelain figure of Venus and Cupid seated on a Dolphin, slip-cast, and painted over lead-glaze in blue, pale turquoise, bluish-green, green, pale yellow, pale orange, flesh, pink, purple, red, brown, beige, and black enamels, and gilt. The unglazed flat base has a large oval ventilation hole in the centre and three patch marks. The circular high mound base has a wavy edges, and pierced sides, decorated with applied seaweeds, and realistic shells of different shapes and sizes, naturalistically coloured. Venus and Cupid are seated on a dolphin facing to the right with water streaming from its mound down the side of the base. Venus faces to the front with her head turned to her left. She holds a billowing pink scarf with her left hand, and rests her right elbow on the dolphin’s tail, so that the right hand is raised. Her hair is brown, and she has a ruddy complexion and red lips. Her upper torso is nude, and round her lower body and legs she has a drape with a gold, red, and blue floral pattern and yellow lining. On each arm she has a gold bangle. Cupid is nude and winged, and has ruddy cheeks and red lips. He holds a small paddle behind him on which there is a small gold anchor mark. The dolphin has green scales, pale orange fins and tail, black eyes surrounded by pale turquoise and orange circles, and a pale orange mouth with black markings.
History note: Unknown before testator
Cecil Byas Bequest
Height: 24.5 cm
Width: 14.8 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1937) by Byas, Cecil E.
18th Century, third quarter#
George III
Gold anchor period (1759-69)
Circa
1760
CE
-
1765
CE
The use of realistic shells and rockwork was a feature of rococo silver and porcelain. It also occurs on Derby centrepieces.
Decoration
composed of
enamels
( blue, pale turquoise, bluish-green, green, pale yellow, pale orange, flesh, pink, purple, red, brown, beige, and black)
gold
Surface
composed of
lead-glaze
( presumed lead)
Figures
Accession number: EC.16B-1938
Primary reference Number: 80749
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Venus and Cupid seated on a Dolphin" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/80749 Accessed: 2024-12-18 04:29:27
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/80749
|title=Venus and Cupid seated on a Dolphin
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 04:29:27|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-80749
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