THE PORTLAND VASE

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21289, 8 October 1934, Page 12

THE PORTLAND VASE

; THIS WEEK'S EXHIBIT AT i .MUSEUM i This week'. 1 ; exhibit is a rcpresen tation of the Portland Vase, one ui the most famous pieces of old Ro- | man glassware, now placed in the South. Kensington Museum, | London. It was found about 1650 lin a sarcophagus in a tomb near | Rome, believed to be the tomb of {Emueror Severus, who died A.D. : 'A2l~>. it probably dates from the firs', I century of the Christian era. Ro- : man glassware of this period at- ! tained a high degree of excellence ; and artistic merit; some of it show;; i definite. Greek influence. TiiL original vase is made of 'ransparent dark blue glass, which ; was covered with white enamel, 'port ions of which were cut away—- ' first of all by grinding and after- , wards finished off by hand-chisel- ' ling—leaving the figures in white ; relief on a dark blue ground, and ! thus producing a cameo effect. The , shades of dark colour showing I through the enamel are used wit it j great skill to produce the required i impression.

The vase attracted the attention ef Josiah Wedgwood, the great poltci", and he said in 1786 when considering the possibility of reproducing the vase: "I do not think £SOOO for the execution of such a vase, supposing our best artists capable of the work, would be at all equal to their gains from th'works they are now employed in." Wedgwood was allowed the privilege of copying the vase and he made 50 representations of it in porcelain, not in glass, and this is one of the 50. The original vase was purchased by the Duke oC Hamilton in 1770, was bought by the Portland family in 1787, anci placed in the British Museum in 1810.