You can tell this is an item that was used as intended because of the wear on the handle – the carved lines aren’t nearly as deep or distinct as they would have been originally. As such, you can also imagine that the family that this coffeepot belonged to was not necessarily of the highest reaches of the aristocracy, or even the middle ranks of the peerage, based on the design work. This probably belonged to a lower ranking modest country estate, such as featured prominently in the writings of Bronte and Austen, or even in the household of a mistress or a bastard child that was not shunned.
Tag: 18th century
Tuesday
I’m going to gloss over the pretentiousness of the silversmith’s chosen moniker (Godbehere indeed, she scoffs, stuffing an Oreo in her face as god is definitely not in this hood), and point out that, pretentious git or not, he was really rather decent at his craft. His design is nowhere near some of the ornately decorated wares of the Baroque, Rococo, and Georgian/American Revolutionary periods, but it is in its simple flashiness a kind of testament to a grander form of elegance that would come into vogue immediately following the Regency and into the early Victorian periods.
Sunday
It still astounds me that people can take a block of stone and go, “Hey, there’s a person inside of here.” And then chip away at that block of stone until there’s literally a sculpture of a person sitting there. I don’t even know how they do it. It’s a special kind of magic.
Wednesday
Astrolabes were the Google Maps of the world before the digital age. They are incredibly important and to have such a fine example in the SLAM collection makes my nerdy little heart indescribably happy.
Sunday
This is pretty for the sake of being pretty. There’s not an ulterior motive for it, nor a practical usage for it. This is just something that you’d put out because you were cash rich and you wanted to flaunt it.
Friday
This, again, is another one of those bridges between Baroque and Rococo that doesn’t quite fit either genre but shares elements of both movements.
Thursday
Again with the Rococo and its erotic imagery.
Wednesday
This is kind of your typical bridge point painting for what happened between the Baroque and Rococo – it was landscapes and a sense of uneasy peasant whimsy with just a hint of aristocratic finery that’s out of place.
Tuesday
Every time I go into the Museum, I comment on how so many of the things seem to have come out of the original countries in times of war or just after war. (Aka, many of the Islamic items are from 1919 – collapse of the Ottoman Empire, many of the French items are 1945, post-WWII, etc.) I feel sad that we’re the beneficiaries of, basically, the equivalent of looting a country of its treasures in order to maybe barely feed its people for a few days.
In this case, what a treasure it is. No exaggeration.
Monday
Oh, man, this is so naughty in so many ways. It’s so Rococo it hurts. It’s indulgent and frivolous and all the things that the aristocracy was supposed to be.