Tulip Vase
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Tulip Vase |
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This vase is one of four
designed by Burges for the Summer Smoking Room at Cardiff Castle. Another
from the set is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Burges
was engaged in redesigning the Castle for the 3rd Marquess of Bute from
1865, although work on the rebuilding continued long after Burges’s death.
Dating from 1874, the vase is of porcellaneous stoneware and measures 37cm
(14 ½”) high and 30cm (11 ¾”)wide. The central vase has four tulip holders arranged around its neck. The upper parts are decorated with parakeets surrounded by blue foliage, the lower parts with scale patterning. Around the body of the vase is the inscription ‘IOHNS . PACTS . MARQ . DeBUTE’, set between coats of arms of the 3rd Marquess of Bute. Around the top of the central tulip holder is the inscription ‘ANNO : DOMIN : 1874’. Photographs of the vases in their original location can be seen in Crook, plates 151-2 and 155. The vases stood on corbels which formed part of the capitals of the engaged columns either side of the Smoking Room fireplace. |