Wedgwood | Jasperware | Footed Bowl | Light Blue | Putti and Classical Figures in Bas-Relief | England | 1956

Wedgwood | Jasperware | Footed Bowl | Light Blue | Putti and Classical Figures in Bas-Relief | England | 1956

The same vocabulary Wedgwood established in the eighteenth century, still being spoken fluently two hundred years later.

Wedgwood Jasperware was developed by Josiah Wedgwood during the 1770s and became one of the most recognisable ceramic bodies in English manufacture. Its matt stoneware surface and applied white neoclassical reliefs established a distinctive decorative language. Jasperware was produced in both solid-coloured and dipped forms, with pale blue becoming particularly closely associated with the Wedgwood name. The impressed circular mark reads “Wedgwood / England” with the year 1956, together with small potter’s marks, and dates this bowl to 1956.

This small footed bowl is of rounded hemispherical form raised on a stepped circular foot. The exterior is decorated with three applied white bas-relief panels, each depicting a different classical scene: a lion-drawn chariot guided by winged putti with an attendant figure; a frieze of dancing children; and a group of putti at play. Between the panels, applied foliate sprays of acanthus and floral form provide visual continuity around the body. The interior is finished in glazed Wedgwood Blue, contrasting with the matt exterior relief, while the foot remains unglazed in the characteristic Jasper body.

The bowl is in good condition. The reliefs remain crisp and well-defined, with the chariot and putti-at-play panels fully intact. In the dancing children panel, one figure shows a loss to the head, visible on close inspection, while the remainder of the decoration is complete. The blue ground is clean and even, with no scratching or staining noted.

Key Details

• Maker: Wedgwood
• Body: Jasperware
• Ground colour: Light blue (Wedgwood Blue)
• Decoration: Applied white bas-relief putti and classical figures; foliate sprays
• Interior: Glazed blue
• Form: Footed bowl
• Diameter: 7 cm
• Height: 4.6 cm
• Weight: 100 g
• Backstamp: Impressed circular mark — Wedgwood / England / 1956, with potter’s marks
• Date: 1956
• Condition: Good; loss to head of one figure in dancing children panel

Collector Appeal

A small dated Jasperware bowl with three different relief scenes — a lion-drawn chariot, dancing children and putti at play — and a glazed blue interior.

More Wedgwood Jasperware from the shop: Wedgwood Jasperware collection.

Three panels, three scenes — putti at play, at the reins, at rest — which is more or less the full range of what classical decoration ever asked of them.