Quarterly Paper on Emprovements in Art Manufactures.

REPRODUCTION OF THE PORTLAND VASE.

WE took the opportunity, some time ago, to allude in the RELIQUARY to a work of art upon which Mr. John Northwood, the eminent glass engraver, was engaged; that of reproducing in its own material (glass) an exact fac-simile of the famous Barberini or Portland Vase. His task and a laborious and marvellous task it has been-is now ended, and the vase takes rank as the finest and most recherché work of this or any other age or country. To some particulars connected with it we now desire to direct special attention.

The original vase was discovered in the early part of the seventeenth century, during the pontificate of Pope Urban the eighth (Barberini), enclosed in a sculptured sarcophagus, in a sepulchral chamber in the Monte del Grano, three miles from Rome, on the way to ancient Tusculam. The inscription on the sarcophagus showed it to have been dedicated to the memory of the emperor Alexander Severus and Julia Mamoa, his mother. The vase, which is supposed to date back to nearly two centuries before the Christian era, was, on its discovery, taken to the library of the Barberini family, and the sarcophagus to the museum in Rome. Thus the vase acquired its name of the "Barberini Vase." In the latter part of the last century this matchless relic passed into the hands of Sir William Hamilton, by whom it was brought to England and sold to the Duchess of Portland, one of the most liberalminded and gifted connoisseurs of the age, by whom it was guarded with religious care. The Duchess died in 1785, and in the following year her splendid museum, including the vase which had through her grace's possession become known as the "Portland Vase," was sold by auction, the vase realizing £1,029. The sale is thus spoken of by Mr. Jewitt in his "Life of Wedgwood":"In April, 1786, the magnificent collection of antiquities and articles of vertu belonging to the late Duchess of Portland (Margaret Cavendish, daughter and heiress of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford), who died in the July of the previous year, were sold by Messrs. Skinner and Co. In this sale was included that unique and truly magnificent work of ancient Art, the 'Barberini Vase,' so called from having belonged to the famous Barberini family at Rome, from whom it came, by purchase, to Sir William Hamilton, who sold it to her Grace, when it received the name by which it has since been universally known, of the Portland Vase.' This gem of ancient Art, Wedgwood determined to possess, that he might carefully examine, study, and, if possible, reproduce in all its exquisite beauty. He attended the sale, and contested the purchase with the then Duke of Portland (son of the late Duchess). I have before said, that one of his great characteristics was a determination of mind and a fixedness of purpose in whatever he undertook that was not to be moved, but only strengthened by opposition. Thus it was over the Barberini Vase. He had determined to examine and reproduce it, and he was not to be diverted from his purpose by a few or many pounds, or by having for his opponent a wealthy duke, the son of its late owner. So he bid on to upwards of a thousand pounds, until, it is related, the duke, stepping across the room to him, asked his object in wishing to possess the vase. On learning his object, the Duke offered, if Wedgwood would give over bidding and permit him to become its purchaser, to place it in his hands, and allow him to keep it sufficiently long to reproduce and do what he required. This arrangement being as frankly accepted as it was offered, the duke became the purchaser of the vase for £1,029, and Wedgwood took with him the priceless gem. The price paid for this vase has been variously stated from £1,000 to £1,800. Wedgwood himself says in his treatise, 'The Duke of Portland purchased the vase for about 1,000 guineas, and, thanks to this nobleman's zeal for the Fine Arts, I was soon enabled to accomplish my anxious desire by his Grace's readiness to afford me the means of making a copy.' In a priced copy of the catalogue, the sum of £1,029 is put against the vase, and this being about 1,000 guineas,' as Wedgwood says, may probably have been the correct sum. The duke kept his word liberally, and Wedgwood never lost an opportunity of speaking in high terms of his Grace's consideration. 'I cannot,' he writes in 1787, 'sufficiently express my obligation to His Grace the Duke of Portland for entrusting this inestimable jewel to my care, and continuing it so long—more than twelve months-in my hands, without which it would have been impossible to do any tolerable justice to this rare work of Art. I have now some reason to flatter myself with the hope of producing, in a short time, a copy which will not be unworthy the public notice.' Wedgwood produced fifty copies, which were subscribed for at fifty guineas each; but it is said that the sum thus realised (£2,500) fell far short of his actual outlay in making them." One of the first fifty is still in the possession of Mr. Francis Wedgwood, at Barlaston; another is in the possession of Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, at Guisachan; another belongs to the Duke of Sutherland; and others are preserved in

other collections. The body was black jasper; the figures in white jasper, were worked up and cut to a wonderful degree of sharpness and finish, by the seal and gem engraver. Copies of the vase have been often made, and these have possessed more or less excellence in execution. While in the possession of the Barberini family, a cast is stated to have been taken from it by Peckler, the gem engraver; and from this matrix some casts in plaster of Paris were made by Tassie.* Other copies of the vase have at one time or other been made, the most successful being those of Wedgwood just alluded to. In the South Kensington Museum one of the original fifty of these is deposited, and in the same collection is a very fine copy of the vase in coloured wax, by R. C. Lucas.

It was, however, reserved for Mr. Philip Pargeter, and Mr. John Northwood, by their combined skill and indomitable perseverance, to make a perfect and unique copy of this priceless treasure in its own material, and hand-cut by its own original process. It was reserved for these two gentlemen to show the world that not only was the art not lost, but that in their hands it would flourish and be made capable of results little short of the marvellous.

The present vase, which, through the courtesy of its liberal-minded owner, Mr. Philip Pargeter, we have had an opportunity of carefully examining, is a perfect reproduction not only in material, and in process of manipulation, but in every minute detail of design, of its great original. The material is, of course, glass, and, thanks to the skill and perseverance of Mr. Pargeter, this has been produced of as nearly as possible the same rich full deep tone of blue colour, closely approaching to black when seen with the light upon it, but of vast richness in dark blue when the light passes through it. Upon this blue body Mr. Pargeter succeeded in laying a layer of fine white soft opal glass, specially made for the purpose, to a considerable thickness; and the welding of these two together was a process of exceeding difficulty. The two kinds of glass, one being opaque and the other transparent, are usually of very different degrees of specific gravity (the usual opal being of much lighter material than ordinary glass), but for this special purpose they had to be made of the same degrees of specific gravity and of expansion and contraction. This difficult task was,

through the skill and constant trials of Mr. Pargeter, brought to a successful result, and the welding accomplished with the utmost thoroughness and delicacy; not a flaw, or air-bubble, or even partially-united spot being visible in the whole of the work. The body of the vase being entirely coated, even to half-way up the neck, with the opal, it was ready for Mr. Northwood to operate upon, and he set about his herculean task-one he had desired all his life to accomplish-with that spirit of determination that ensured success. For three years he has unceasingly devoted himself to his task, never working less than six hours a day, and oftener more, at his gemlike material, and patiently cutting away, by hand, and by hand only, the opal coating, SO as to leave the blue surface clear as a ground-work, and the figures and other parts of the design in relief. The whole of the grouping, the figures, the trees, and indeed every minute portion of the decoration is delicately carved in the opal, and entirely carved and cut by hand as in the original. By the entire cutting away of the opal the amethystine glass of the vase itself is cleared and polished, while by the gradations of thickness in the carving all the most delicate shades of colour from the finest white to the sweetest of all half-tones-produced by leaving simply a thin and fairylike film of the coating on the body-in blue, are produced.

The effect, as may be imagined, is rich and gorgeous in the extreme; but its general effect is the least part of its merit-this lies in the nature of the work itself, in the extreme delicacy and beauty of manipulation, and in the almost microscopic nicety of its finish. It is literally cameo engraving in its highest, most difficult, and most beautiful phase; and the vase, now completed, is indeed, in Art, a 66 gem of the first water," and one that can never, in point of execution and in artistic skill, be surpassed.

Of the value of this inestimable Art-treasure it is manifestly impossible to form an estimate, but we happen to know that it has been produced at an enormous outlaymore hundreds of pounds than we care to trust ourselves to name-and that it is now, in the most extended sense of the word, a "priceless treasure," and perfectly unique. It is, indeed, the Barberini Vase not as it is, but as it was when it first gladdened the eyes of its original possessor two thousand years ago. It may be looked upon as the finest exemplar of ancient art, reproduced in our own day at the most lavish expenditure of time and money, by the only two men capable of undertaking such a task. We cannot too highly compliment Mr. Pargeter, the fortunate owner of the renowned Red House Glass Works, Stourbridge, in being the possessor and maker of so inestimable and priceless a treasure, nor can we too strongly and heartily congratulate Mr. Northwood on the truly successful completion of his task- -a task that has been a true labour of love to him, and on which his whole heart and soul, as well as his busy * One of these rare casts is in possession of Dr. Kendrick.

fingers and active brain have been unweariedly occupied for so many years. We thank Mr. Pargeter for having given us the opportunity of carefully examining this work of Art (we ought to add that by special arrangement with the Trustees of the British Museum, Mr. Northwood has been enabled to actually carve his copy in front of the original) and we congratulate the nation on having produced an artist capable of resuscitating the noble art and giving to the world so admirable a proof of his matchless skill. It will always remain as much an unique example of modern art in glass-far in advance of anything else yet produced-as the original is of Ancient Art. We trust on another occasion to speak of some of the more usual, and deliciously-beautiful art-productions of Mr. Pargeter's manufactory.

MESSRS. BARNARD & CO.'S ART CASTINGS IN IRON.

MESSRS. BARNARD, BISHOP, AND BARNARDS, of Norwich, have made such rapid strides not only in the designs and art-workmanship of their Fire-places, but in their construction also, as to fully entitle them to a prominent place in our "Quarterly Papers." The Fire-places produced by this Firm, and which are a speciality of their works, are appropriately named "Slow Combustion Stoves," and they stand pre

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