19th Century Continental Porcelain Covered Box with Dresden-style Decoration
A Continental porcelain covered box, 19th century, the fine Dresden-style rectangular box with Corinthian capital columns to the corners, the stepped cover with reticulated frieze of scrolls and animal gilt finial, the sides painted with floral sprays, with grotesque ram's head handles to the short sides and gilt accents throughout, the underside with underglaze blue mark, possibly Dresden. In good condition as catalogued, height: 4.33 in. length: 4.72 in. width: 3.15 in.
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- Finial - An architectural decoration, found on the upper parts of of an object. On furniture they are usually found on pediments, canopies and shelf supports. On smaller ceramic or silver items, such as spoons, they may decorate the top of the item itself, or the lid or cover where they provide a useful handle for removal.
Finials have a variety of shapes and forms. They may be urn-shaped, baluster shaped round or spiral, but usually taper into an upper point. Many real life shapes may also be used as finials, such as pineapples, berries, pinecones, buds, lotus and acorns. Sometimes animals such as a lion are depicted, or fish and dolphins. - Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
- Grotesque - Grotesque decoration is any fanciful ornament applied to furniture and decorative arts, and includes distorted faces, mythical animals such as satyrs and sphinxes and less frequently fantastical fruit and flower forms.
The Martin Brothers who set up their pottery at the end of the nineteenth century in Southall, Middlesex derived their fame from their hand made models of grotesque stoneware birds.
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