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It was the start of British Summer Time yesterday, now there’s an oxymoron,
so of course I woke up this morning and it was three degrees below – there was
ice on my car. If one wasn’t British one would consider that cold weather and
the summer just don’t go together – just like Bloor Derby and the Nantgarw
works in Swansea, snowballs and the Mediterranean or Claude Lorrain and Naples harbour.
Only a mad dog or an Englishman could link these disparate features together –
so perhaps I’ll try.
I recently came across a copy of the Antique Collector magazine for June 1984, nearly
an antique in its own right and found an article entitled ‘The Ongley Service
lost for a Century’. Kind of strange I thought that the singularly most expensive
service that the Derby porcelain works produced in the 1820’s went and got forgotten
- The Derby Mercury of 1825 wrote that ‘Admirers of the fine arts … will
be highly gratified (with) a most magnificent service of china which has been completed
by … Mr Bloor, for the express use of a nobleman in a distant part of England’.
If Muncaster Castle in Cumbria seemed a great distance then the designs on the Ongley
service were a world away.
One plate depicts a view of Naples Harbour that very obviously is derived form
a Claude Lorrain sketch of 1636. Nothing strange in a Grand Tour image on a nobleman’s
service is there? Another is derived from a source much closer to home that was originally
painted by James Plant for the Nantgarw works in Swansea and subsequently repeated
for Bloor Derby by William Corden it depicts a charming snowballing scene something
far more appropriate whatever the season it seems.
If the mixture of Nantgarw, Swansea and Bloor Derby seems something of an acquired
(all be it an expensive) taste one might be unsurprised to learn that other subject
matter in this service included scenes of juvenile affection and a view of Moscow.
A sophisticated and wise purchase from a man with money or something of a crème
de menthe cocktail with a glace cherry and an umbrella in it, ask me on July 1st when
I have sold the above plates?
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Nic Saintey's Blog
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Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:48:52 GMT.
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 | Nic Saintey ASFAV
Nic Saintey is a Director of Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, with responsibility for marketing and advertising. He is also Head of the Ceramics and Glass Department.
Nic Saintey's first career was in the Armed Forces where he served both as a military parachutist and paramedic in Europe, North America, East Africa and the Middle East.
He joined Lawrence’s of Crewkerne in early 1995 before moving to their Taunton branch as a general valuer and saleroom manager.
Nic joined Bearne’s in June 2000 to head up the expanding ceramic department, before joining the Board in 2003. His effervescent nature and wide experience has seen him regularly appear as an expert on the BBC’s Bargain Hunt and Flog It programmes.
He undertakes regular talks and contributes articles to both Devon and Cornwall Life magazines. His interests particularly include pottery in general, but especially that produced in Donyatt and North Devon, he is a keen runner and has recently taken up motor sport at a local circuit.
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