FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
Jefferyes Hammett O’Neale at Worcester 1768-70
It is clear that from the records Jefferyes Hammett O’Neale was living and working at Worcester by April 1768 but was he employed directly by the factory? It was a very significant rule that the artists at Worcester were not allowed to sign their work least this cause financial problems for the factory at a later date when the particular artist had developed a reputation in the field and was easily recognised in his style. This point seems not to have been the case for O’Neale, for his style had been carved out very successfully at Chelsea where he developed and presided over the part of the decorating studio responsible for Fable decorating and that of European figures. His style was very individual and easily recognised; therefore this may have been the reason for finding his signature on most of his important pieces executed at Worcester. However another reason for this is that he may have been freelance while at Worcester and therefore a rule of anonymity need not have applied, especially when having such a noticeable style.
His work, or influence, at Worcester is divided up into three distinct categories. There are a series of large ornamental wares, being twin handled vases and baluster vases of some considerable size, some of which are signed, for instance the great twin handled vase in the British Museum decorated with a Boar Hunt, which takes a great deal of influence from Jean Baptiste Oudry or Franz Snyders or the Vase in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain decorated with Aneas rescuing Anchises, illustrated Franklin Barrett, ‘Worcester Porcelain’, fig 79. The second category is tea wares, which are extremely rare. There is very rare wet blue ground tea and coffee service decorated with individual animals, which is very much in his style, most of the animals in this very rare service are taken from prints in the Robert Sayer’s ‘Ladies Amusement’, for example the ovoid tea canister painted with a leopard that is in the Zorensky Collection and the spoon tray, decorated with a chestnut horse, at the Ashmolean, illustrated by H.R.Marshall, ‘Coloured Worcester Porcelain of the First Period’, pl. 26, No. 586.There are also a very few examples of chocolate cups, covers and stands decorated with panels of Fables and landscapes, again with a wet blue ground. Finally his work recorded on dessert wares is decorated with a myriad of Fables, (Nos. 78-86) show an amazing array of these very important wares, which should be considered as Fine Art on porcelain.
The derivation and inspiration of the designs is usually after Croxall’s ‘Aesop’s Fables’, published in 1722, this is a reworking of Francis Barlow’s ‘Aesop’s Fables’ of 1687.These two publications were, as we have said in the foreword, very familiar to the English eighteenth century society both young and old. It has not been since the three great sales of the mid twentieth century that so many of the dessert wares have been seen together and we are extremely pleased to have brought nine of these wares together to be exhibited in ‘Splendour in the Grass’ for nothing quite encapsulates the title like the Fable painting of O’Neale.
The first of the three great sales was the Heathcote Sale conducted by Sothebys on 21st February 1947, the wares included 19 plates each bearing a fable, within a very simple gilt lambrequin border on a wet blue ground with gilt dentil edge, such as Nos. 79, 80, 81, which come from the sale. For a full description of these plates see H.R.Marshall, ‘ Coloured Worcester Porcelain of the First Period’, p. 45-47. It is easy to recognise the Heathcote wares as the lambrequin border is the simplest of the three and has no large gilt diaper panels.
The second sale was the Rayner sale, conducted by Sothebys March 17th 1950. The sale included 14 plates, of which No. 78 is one, three oval dishes and two fluted dishes, these are described again by H.R.Marshall, p. 48.
Finally the third sale, the property of Colonel Reginald Bastard of Kitley House near Yelmpton in Devon, conducted by Christies April 21st 1953, which includes the most varied of the shapes and the same border decoration as the wares from the Rayner sale, thus making us wonder if these wares were in fact together within the same service at one time. Amongst the twenty three plates included, there are also three pierced circular baskets and four large fluted circular dishes all are illustrated and described by H.R.Marshall, p. 49-59.
With such an array of the dessert wares it is very interesting to assess the very expansive palette now redolent within the artistry of O’Neale at the peak of his profession within the painting of the porcelain at Worcester. Clouds that were once just greyish or pale blue wisps have now become purplish and there are large banks of clouds hanging over the landscapes. New ways of creating depth in a landscape are employed by him, for instance, water cascades and streams. This can be seen in (No. 80 with the Fable of the Wolf and the Lamb). This is always the case on the series of vases which have large panels on the reverse decorated with river landscapes of this type, such a the superb large Vase and cover sold by us last year, superbly decorated with Lions within a tropical landscape, the reverse with a river scene, the whole on a wet blue ground exceptionally well gilt with flowers. The vase takes pride of place within the Worcester porcelain of the First period at Rienzi The Museum of Fine Arts Houston in Texas, the collection there was built up by Harris Masterson. The entire Fine art and decorative art collection formed the museum on his death.
A knowledge of the decoration and techniques of depth of field from Meissen porcelain can be noted too. There are usually brown rocks at the front of each main scene, these become a hallmark of O’Neale but great painters such as Heroldt and Heinze have used them before at Meissen in the 1740’s. They had used monochrome and then coloured parts of the scene to illustrate a depth of field and this is exactly the same with O’Neale, who will go from ‘Van Dyke’ brown to pastel shades, to purple monochrome through to fuller colour in the sky. This depth is also employed in the wooded parts of the landscape, trees whether tropical or indigenous usually frame the scene; their branches bent down by winds which swoop the viewing eye to the subject of the Fable. The leaves are nearly always on the turn from summer to the autumn and areas of browning foliage. Whilst at the back of the scenes are always purple-headed mountains conceived from thin washes and above always fly flocks of gracely moving birds.
O’Neale also employed very successful methods of showing and giving the effect of great detail to certain parts of the landscape as well as to the main subject of the scene, only a trained miniaturist of this calibre could have done this. This is where a knowledge of whether the hand is O’Neale and where it is not becomes important and for this to be the case demands a lengthy study of his signed vases. O’Neale employs scaffito, within the vegetation, look to the front of each scene beside the rocks or to the lichens growing down trees or to the vegetation growing on the cliffs so ably painted by him, tiny areas of scratching in a swirled way through the greens and browns. The animals have detail concentrated around the edges of their form, a series of crosshatched strokes, just as he would do in a miniature and utterly unknown in the work of any other porcelain painted at this time. Their faces, which show a slightly human aspect to them, almost a caricature, have very detailed eyes which show another individual characteristic of O’Neale’s hand, that of colouring the tear duct and the tongue bright red.
Finally the buildings differ enormously, the river landscapes have watermills and thatched cottages and generally farm like or functional building. However the front main panels are very different and have an almost Arcadian feel to them with their ruined classical buildings in the distance and the tiniest hint of human forms standing before them. It is always worth noting the horizons in O’Neale’s art on Worcester for there is sometimes a part of a real view for instance No. 81 shows the Abbey at Malvern nestling as it does at the base of the Malvern Hills and totally the view which he would have seen from where the factory was situated near to the Bridge at Warmestry House. This is such a wonderfully human touch and proof of his presence and understanding of the scenery near Worcester.
This last section of the catalogue has been a delight to research and catalogue and we are grateful to the collector for his decision to part with such jewels of Fable decorated Worcester porcelain. We hope that they will continue to delight their new owners and pass on to them their infectious delight and humour which characterises O’Neale’s own special style and which makes him in our view the greatest painter of his time on English porcelain.