Topic: Engraved Jug with Scary Baby, Dancers and Angels

[chopin-liszt]

Nigel has it, now. His turn.
But there are similarities in the fantasticality, and the quality of work. It's not the same sort of work, but the quality is there.

[Ekimp]

Flying tree, do you mention the folded foot because of the concentric ring you can see on the foot that looks like that of a folded foot? If I zoom in on the photos it looks like the ring might be a dashed engraved line - part of the decoration - like you see sometimes on engraved items? The photos are a bit small though and it might be my screen, Ckscot, does it have a folded foot?

If you search the brothers Grimm fairy tale The Changeling, there’s an illustration that comes up by Mabel Lucie Attwell with the baby sat on a mushroom, but no dancers. I like the storm lantern.

[chopin-liszt]

Was MLA capable of producing such an evil looking baby?
Scary rhymes though!

"Please remember, don't forget,
Never leave the bathroom wet,
Nor leave the soap still in the water,
That's a thing we never oughter.
Nor leave the towel upon the floor,
Nor keep the bath an hour or more,
When other folks are wanting one,
Please don't forget, it isn't done."

I haven't forgotten!

[NevB]

I think Sue(M) is on the right track with the German reference as their folklore on this has a long history. The jug looks German to me and difficult to age without seeing it, but early 1900's? It's funny but I've been singing Steeleye Span's Elf Call all day.

[chopin-liszt]

Now you've set me off on "When Maddy Dances". 

[flying free]

ah,  I cannot enlarge the pictures really.  So what I 'see' is a folded foot. Is it not?
If not, then that might change the feeling about it being older.

If not, then I can see this being a kind of 1905 type piece. However, the shape doesn't shout Bohemian to me although the handle shape does  . Maybe German, maybe English?

Is it heavy?
Is it a claret jug? I presume not given the shape of the glass in the set?  Is it a water jug then? 

The body would be described as 'pear shaped' maybe?
The handle has been applied bottom up. So it could be an older piece perhaps?

Please can we see a good picture large of the pontil mark? If it's large I'd be inclined to think Stevens and Williams or Thomas Webb as a possible option to explore. I honestly don't know much about these things but the handle might put me off them as options (at least on first thoughts), as would the folded foot - unless it's not folded obviously.   However a large polished pontil mark would put me off Bohemian as a start point.

[ckscot]

I'm still having trouble resizing, so not sure how good the quality of this is, but here is one of the foot showing the pontil mark.  I hadn't heard of a folded foot before now (embarrassed face), but I don't think that the ewer or the glass have one.  The foot measures 10.5 cm in diameter, the pontil mark measures about 5.5 cm in diameter.  The decoration around the foot is a series of ovals separated by two vertical lines, all engraved on the underside of the foot.  It weighs 670g, which seems quite light to me, and the foot doesn't seem to have very much in the way of wear marks so it's maybe not that old?

I have been going cross-eyed looking at images of changelings and babies on mushrooms on google.  I wouldn't recommend it.  I have sent an email to the fairy investigation society (!!) to see if they can give any info on the painting of a changeling on their website.  I will keep you posted.

[flying free]

ok,thank you!  the photo isn't huge but the very large polished pontil mark can be seen as can the engraved decoration around the base of the foot.  So, not a folded foot.

Thanks.  More food for thought

[chopin-liszt]

We need to remember that engraving can be done on old bits of glass. This was not neccessarily made and decorated at the same time or in the same place.

[flying free]

Update to my long message below:  AHA!
The painting the engraving is taken from is by Richard Dadd and is indeed a painting of Puck - 1841:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/a-great-british-collection-the-pictures-collected-by-sir-david-and-lady-scott-sold-to-benefit-the-finnis-scott-foundation-l08137/lot.104.html


My earlier this morning musings before I found this:
Now I've seen the decoration on the foot, I'm thinking it's old, maybe late 19th.  And given the subject matter of the decoration I think it's contemporary to the piece because I'm not sure that's a subject matter that would have been 'desirable' in recent times.
 Is it also engraved with dots along the handle?

Could you take a photograph of it against a white background so the colour of the glass can be seen please?

Oh,and it's possible the 'baby' is in fact a pixie/elf hence his  facial expression, left to replace the stolen child described here in a painting of changeling by Joseph Bouvier:
https://www.leicestergalleries.com/browse-artwork-detail/MTQ4ODE=

The inspiration for the pixie/elf on the toadstool may have come from Sir Joshua Reynolds depiction of Puck?:
Here in the Royal Collection -
https://www.rct.uk/collection/641466/puck

and
See also my reply #14 where I said it looked like Puck , which is a weird connection in my brain given the Puck in the link below is an adult version of the 'baby' in the Dadd painting an on your jug.
https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,69722.msg388527.html#msg388527

https://www.william-blake.org/Oberon-Titania-And-Puck-With-Fairies-Dancing.html


ok, so now we know the painting.  This is the provenance of the painting:

PROVENANCE
Henry Farrer (1821-1906), of Green Hammerton Hall, Yorkshire, by whom purchased at the Royal Society of British Artists, 1841;
Major Thomas Birchall, of Ribbleton Hall, Preston, by 1857, and thence by family descent;
John Rickett, 1964;
J. S. Maas and Co, London, where bought by Sir David Scott, 2 December 1975 for £11,500.


This is where it was exhibited and when:

London, Society of British Artists, 1841, no. 603;
Manchester, Art Treasures Exhibition, 1857, no. 335 (lent by Thomas Birchall);
London, Tate Gallery; Hull, Ferens Art Gallery; Wolverhampton, Municipal Art Gallery; Bristol, City Art Gallery, The Late Richard Dadd 1817-1886, 1974-75, no. 58;
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Sunshine and Shadow - The David Scott Collection of Victorian Paintings, 1991, no. 4;
Vienna, Kunstforum, Kunst und Wahn, 1997;
Japan, Saitama Museum of Modern Art and Ashikaga Museum of Art, Fairy Painting in Britain, 2003-2004, no. 13;
On loan to Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, 2007 to 2008

It also seems to have appeared as a reference or as a depicted plate in the Art Union journal in 1841 and then in literature throughout the 1960s onwards according to that Sotheby's link