Antique Chinese & Japanese PorcelainEuropean Ceramics & Works of Art
Wedgwood tri-colour jasper octagonal medallion, circa 1790-1800, Staffordshire, jasperware with applied decoration in blue, green and white jasper, depicting the goddess Aurora, driving a chariot across the sky with winged putti surrounded by wispy clouds, the base impressed with a Wedgwood mark.
Dimensions:
Width: 7.5cm. (2 7/8in.)
Notes:
There is a medallion with identical applied decoration in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no. 3523-1855, and an earlier model given by Douglas Eyre, no. CIRC.157-1922.
Depictions of Aurora driving her chariot was a popular theme in English creamware design from this period. According to Roman mythology, the goddess renews herself every morning and drives her chariot across the skies to announce the arrival of the sun. During the Neoclassical movement in Britain, designs incorporating figures or scenes from classical mythology gained popularity alongside a renewed interest in classical texts such as Virgil’s Aeneid, in whose eighth book can be found the lines: ‘Aurora now had left her saffron bed; And beams of early light the heav’ns o’erspread’
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