Réductions en porcelaine des figures de la Fontaine de Nîmes.
4/12/04 - Question D. Siler au Spode Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK:
While preparing an article (« Les enfants nomades de la Fontaine de Nîmes ») for my website on the sculptor James Pradier, I recently learned that the Musée du Vieux Nîmes owns a small porcelain statuette of one of Pradier's works which bears, under its base, the inscription "Copeland's Porcelain Statuary." The work is a reduction of one of the five marble figures he exectued for the fountain in Nîmes between 1845 and 1851. It was acquired by the museum in 1926. Please see the attached photo. I would like to know if the Spode museum has any other examples of this work or of any other work by Pradier and if there is any documentation, published or manuscript, relating to this or any of his works reproduced in porcelain by the Spode/Copeland factories. I would also be interested in knowing if the inscription on this work appears with the same wording on other Copeland porcelains and, if so, during how many years it was used by the company.
7/12/04 - Réponse Pam Woolliscroft, Curator, Spode Museum Trust:
I have found the parian figure listed as Ondine, and also known as Undine by Copelands. The main information which follows is from research by my predecessor, Robert Copeland (who, now retired, is currently working on a book about the parian ware we made). Robert has carried out the research into individual subjects produced in parian ware. You may wish to comment on the correctness of what follows from your own specialist research.Robert Copeland's reference: S123
Date: 1847
Dimensions: 9 in.
Sculptor: after Pradier
Marks: printed COPELAND'S PORCELAIN STATUARY
Ondine, or Undine, is the name given by Copelands to an allegorical figure, one of four, by Pradier representing rivers found on the « Fontaine Pradier » in Nimes, France. The statue represents a famous local spring, water-course, known as the Fontaine de Nimes. The original work is also known as the River Allegory. The figure sitting above an overturned water jar should be holding a mirror in her right hand (which can be seen in the attached image from an 1851 catalogue (note - whereabouts of the catalogue currently unknown). The retail price in 1848 was £1 10s 0d, while is 1851 it had been reduced to 20s. The Statuary Price Book, (thought to date from the late 1840s) wherein Ondine is the first entry under « O », the trade price is 21s and the retail 30s... A coloured and gilded version was priced at 42s on 27 September 1861 while a « gilt and tinted » one was 21s. The net price list of 1873 includes this figure at 16s 6d whilst that of 1880 quotes 10s 6d.There are further details about various prices but I feel I need to go back to the source material to make sense of them and they are probably not relevant to your query. The figure is also illustrated in a book on Victorian Parian Ware by Shinn. I do not have a full reference or copy here, I am sorry. You will find other figures « after Pradier » in the Parian Phenomenon - details on the attached booklist - and not just by Copeland. However I know of no details about Pradier in the archive. It would seem that Copeland's made arrangements with individual sculptors to use their work or to pay for a model from which a mould could be made for the company to then produce the pieces in parian but there seems to be no systematic format for the arrangements. There is another reference in Robert's notes (his ref S141) of Rivers of France. The Statuary Price Book lists this as a centrepiece Statuary and china at a price of 9 guineas and dated 7th October 1870. Sadly there is no further information. It probably took the form of an elaborate china basket supported by parian figures representing the Rivers. The mark in this form you describe is an early mark for parian ware (before that name was adopted throughout the industry) and is thought to date from about 1847-8. Statuary Porcelain is the name this company used when it introduced the ceramic body in the 1840s. There is an essay on parian ware in Robert Copeland's book Spode and Copeland Marks and Other Relevant Intelligence as detailed in the attached booklist. The archive is very large here and not fully catalogued so if I come across any other reference to Pradier I will let you know.
8/12/04 - Réponse D. Siler:
Thank you very, very much for your detailed response to my query. It will be extremely useful for my research on Pradier. It is particularly fascinating to know that the Copeland Undine figure was available as early as 1848 and that all four of the Nîmes figures may have been reproduced in porcelain as part of a centrepiece. If you do find more information, please let me know. The original Latin names are all engraved on the Nîmes fountain itself. The Undine figure is Nemausa (La fontaine de Nîmes). Its bronze reductions were named Mélancolie, or Mélancolie des eaux. The other seated female figure is Ura (La fontaine d'Eure). Its bronze reductions were called Harmonie, or Harmonie des eaux (which translates as "Harmony of the Waters"). The two seated male figures symbolising the Rhône and Gardon rivers are named Rhodos and Vardo. These four seated figures surround a standing female figure symbolising the city of Nîmes (La Ville de Nîmes). For further details, please see the article on my website.
9/12/04 - Réponse Pam Woolliscroft, Curator, Spode Museum Trust:
I am glad the information was helpful. I will have a look at the website to see if any of the other figures look like any of our Copeland figures. I would love to find an image of our Rivers centrepiece I mentioned as the style of the centrepieces we made is reminiscent of the fountain - for example we have one with four seated female figures representing the continents and they sit around a central column with an elaborate basket at the top. These decorated grand tables and were quite remarkable pieces of work using a combination of parian ware and bone china often with hand painted and gilded work on the china.
Question/Réponse en rapport:
23/9/04 - Réductions des statues de la Fontaine de Nîmes au Musée du Vieux Nîmes.
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