I'd hazard a guess that somewhere in one of the Hogarth engravings there's a baluster tankard to two - I have some C19 copies of the better known ones such as Beer St & Gin Lane - always very chilling to look at the horrors of that picture, especially the mother pouring gin down the baby's throat. This particular engraving, and others from his Rake's and Harlot's Progress, are valuable sources for dating certain C18 drinking glasses, but since they're black and white then wouldn't know about other coloured pieces.
Sorry, but presently I'm not particularly enamoured of Fieldings - their lack of response to our questions last year re the T/Webb pink vase with gilding - I forget the exact details but you will remember - which we considered almost certainly to be a mis-attribution. It does seem that too many houses rely on the seller to provide provenance/attribtution/age, which believe is what happened with the pink vase.
Re the blue tankard, Fieldings may well have simply quoted from the 1962 exhibition catalogue - we don't know, and it's likely indeed that such sources are valuable tools for auctioneers - but we've no idea how the original age or Newcastle connection etc. was arrived at. Just quoting from a bald exhibit caption may be alright in a gallery cabinet, but think we'd need a bit more than that to understand the whys and wherefores.
I wouldn't consider that a given piece, having been shown in 1962 at an exhibition, was technically what would qualify as 'provenance' for a specified date and origin.
1962 is a long time back and ideas do chop and change in over half a century.
Those folk who have Andy McConnell's immensely useful Decanter book will be aware of the apparent mis-attribution of the so-called 'Newcastle Decanters'. Probably not devious, but confusing nonetheless, was the apparent dealer generated provenance that certain shaped and decorated bottles originated in Newcastle, although such pieces were subsequently re-attributed 'to La Granja and various Danish works' - the confusion arising it appears because these pieces were imported through the port of Newcastle. Something else I didn't know in connection with that city, concerns particular styles of drinking glasses known commonly as 'light and heavy balusters' the description of which is usually preceded with the word Newcastle, thus implying such pieces were made there.
John Brooks, writing in 1981 said he couldn't find any positive evidence to support this association, and almost all of the books he consulted made no reference to such a connection - he believed it was in fact W. A. Thorpe who started the ball rolling with this assertion, but who omitted to provide any evidence to back this up.
So, it seems that Newcastle has had more than its fair share of misunderstandings - might this be so with the blue tankard, and might this be another instance of word association - bit like saying that a piece with a pontil depression must be W/Fs.
So I shall reserve judgment as to the place of origin for these tankards.
I'm really not trying to be difficult, but the world and his wife will take advantage of word association, and it's so much more satisfying to find a genuine piece of provenance that can be supported with historic fact, rather than start guessing.
But hey - you know more about coloured glass than me, so perhaps you're right after all.
Topic: Tankard - Georgian or Victorian? English or Bohemian or French? enamelled (Read 1845 times)
