Gifts of Grandeur: The Hull Grundy Garnet Aigrette, c. 1770

This and all related images from The British Museum

With its trembler bird which would have quivered as the wearer of this jewel walked, this aigrette of rich garnets set in gilt silver would have been the height of fashion in the mid Seventeenth Century when it was made.  

Another jewel from the Hull Grundy Gift to The British Museum, this aigrette is one of three similar pieces in the collection.

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The Home Beautiful: The Chelsea Turkish Table Figure, 1755

Figure
Chelsea Porcelain Factory, 1755
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In the Eighteenth Century, in response to the popular dessert table figure groups made in France and Germany, Britain’s Chelsea Factory began making their own sets of porcelain figures designed to be brought out with the dessert course during a stylish meal in a wealthy household.

In Britain, in 1755, when this figure and its companions were made, porcelains depicting people in Turkish dress were highly fashionable.   The Meissen factory in Germany was the first to make porcelain figures of Turks. Those figures were quickly copied by the English porcelain factories in Staffordshire and Chelsea. The Chelsea porcelain factory copied the figure pictured here from a Meissen example modelled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1695-1749) in 1746.  This figure was part of a group meant for a dessert table.

Horace Walpole wrote of this decorative phenomenon in 1753 that displays of sugar plums and other confectionery had “long given way to harlequins, gondoliers, Turks, Chinese, and sheperdesses of Saxon china.”


This set is unique in that it wasn't just purely decorative, but useful.  The shell-shaped dishes attached to each figure would have served to hold candies, nuts or small pastries.

Painting of the Day: Two Turks, with a Servant, 1828-1840

Two Turks, with a Servant, Smoking on a Terrace Overlooking a Lake or Sea in Turkey or Greece
William Page
British, 1828-1840
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This graceful painting has been saddled with a very cumbersome title, “Two Turks, with a Servant, Smoking on a Terrace Overlooking a Lake or Sea in Turkey or Greece.”  It is the work of William Page (1794-1872). This William Page is a British painter, not to be confused with the American artist of the same name who lived roughly during the same period.  Page demonstrates his delicate skill with watercolors in this work on rough paper.  Highlights and details are accentuated in pencils.

Painted between 1828-1840, the work is inscribed on the back, probably partly erroneously, “Turks. Village of Scutari.”  Later notes by the artist suggest that the scene may be in or near Ioannina.

Page’s style went through two distinct stages.  This painting represents Page's later, more picturesque, style.  Previously, during the 1810s and early/mid 1820s, Page focused mainly on costume studies.  During the late 1820s and  early 1830s, he mainly depicted graceful landscapes.  Here, he appears to have combined the two.

Her Majesty’s Furniture: A Turkey Work Chair, 1605

The Victoria & Albert Museum

We have looked at “turkey work” before. “Turkey work” is a technique of hand-knotting wool pike in an imitation of Eastern carpets. The “turkey” in question is the country, not the bird.

Chairs of this type were quite fashionable in the Seventeenth Century. In this particular example, the turkey-work cover wasn’t created for the chair, but was, rather, cut down from a carpet of earlier date than the chair.

The curators at the V&A contend that the application of the carpet to the chair doesn’t date to the chair’s 1605 creation. In fact, though the carpet is older than the chair, it appears to have been used as upholstery on the chair in the Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century as a replacement for the original turkey work, which was probably ruined. Doing so would have ensured that the chair maintained a “suitably antique appearance.”

This fine chair comes from Beaudesert, Staffordshire, from a house of Sixteenth-century origins. The house had to be substantially rebuilt in the Nineteenth century. A fire in 1909 destroyed much of the property and its contents. This chair is probably part of those furnishings that were damaged in the fire—explaining the replacement of the turkey work. The house was demolished in 1935 and the historical contents were acquired by the V&A. 

Drawing of the Day: The Yellow-Breasted Chat and the Turk's Cap Lily, c. 1765

The Yellow-Breasted Chat and The Turk's Cap Lily, c. 1765
Mark Catesby
Purchased by King George III
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

From the Royal Collection, we have this handsome watercolor by Mark Catesby (1682-1749). Catesby created the painting of a small bird (known as a Yellow-Breasted Chat) with a Turk’s Cap Lily. To give emphasis to the bird, Catesby has only faintly sketched-in the plant with it’s maple-shaped leaves. 

The painting was created for one Thomas Cadell from whom it was purchased by King George III in 1768.

Figure of the Day: The Banyan Man, 1760-1780

The Banyan Man
France, 1760-1780
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The work of The Lunéville Pottery Factory in France, this wholly Rococo figure of a standing man was made to appeal to the Eighteenth Century fascination with the exotic and the asian. The figure is dressed in a turban and a banyan, and is likely a lost member of a set of dessert figurines.

The figure was made of tin-glazed earthenware adorned with enamel colors and dates between 1760 and 1780. 

Mastery of Design: A Hellenistic Gold, Emerald and Garnet Necklace, 200 B.C.-100 B.C.

Necklace
Gold, Emeralds, Garnets, Glass
Greek, 200-100 B.C.
The Victoria & Albert Museum

In Greece, during the Hellenistic period (323-27 BC), all of the arts thrived and artists of every conceivable medium began to examine the relationships between different colors. Even Hellenistic jewelers had become fascinated with the concept of color and began to play with different combinations of gold and gemstones. 

During this period, garnets were the most popular gemstone—prized for their deep, wine color. Garnets were often combined with emeralds, carnelian, rock crystal, agates, onyxes or lapis-lazuli to great effect. While the gems were not faceted in the manner of more modern gem cuts, they were often elaborately carved, pierced, and polished. Jewelers even began to toy with the idea of using colored glass to simulate the look of costlier stones. In this necklace, for example, glass was used to imitate onyx and pearl.

Reverse

The fashion of the day dictated that necklaces should be worn tight around the neck like a modern-day choker. This magnificent necklace of gold, polished garnets and emeralds, originally featured a ribbon at the back to allow the wearer to fasten it snugly against her throat. Necklaces such as this were meant to be worn with others, rising high upon the neck. Usually, the central piece was ornate, as is the case of this one, augmented by tight strings of beads in matching colors.