Wedgwood | Jasperware | Posy Vase | Light Blue | Ram’s Head Masks and Floral Swags | England | 1955

A ram’s head on a blue ground — Wedgwood turned classical borrowing into a language of its own.

Wedgwood Jasperware is one of the most recognisable ceramic bodies in English manufacture. Developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s, it is an unglazed stoneware coloured through the body and decorated with applied white relief ornament derived from classical antiquity. The pale blue ground — Wedgwood Blue — became its defining register and remains in continuous production. The ram’s head mask motif, drawn from Greco-Roman architectural ornament, is a recurring element in Wedgwood’s neoclassical vocabulary. The impressed circular mark reading “Wedgwood / England / 1955” dates this example precisely to 1955.

This small posy vase is of globular form raised on a stepped circular foot, with a narrow, lightly flared rim. Around the upper body are five applied white ram’s head masks, evenly spaced, each issuing a continuous swag of roses and foliate trails that loop between the masks around the full circumference. The relief work is finely modelled, with well-defined floral detail and clear separation from the pale blue ground. The interior is finished in unglazed Jasperware, consistent with the exterior body.

The vase is in very good condition. The applied reliefs are crisp and intact throughout, and the blue ground remains clean and even. There is a very small chip to the foot rim, visible on close inspection, which does not affect the decorative presentation.

Key Details

• Maker: Wedgwood
• Body: Jasperware
• Ground colour: Light blue (Wedgwood Blue)
• Decoration: Applied white ram’s head masks with continuous rose and foliate swags
• Form: Posy vase
• Diameter: 6 cm
• Height: 5.3 cm
• Weight: 89 g
• Backstamp: Impressed circular mark — Wedgwood / England / 1955
• Date: 1955
• Condition: Very good; small chip to foot rim

The swag has held for seventy years — which is, in the end, what a well-made ornament is supposed to do.