Beschreibung:

Wedgwood Numbered First Edition Copy of the Portland Vase, England, 18th century, solid black body with applied white classical figures in relief enhanced with a gray wash, a man wearing a Phrygian cap beneath the base, numbered in pencil "22" to the inside rim, unmarked, ht. 9 7/8; together with an oval solid black trial medallion with applied white foliage, impressed 3, lg. 2 3/8 in. Provenance: From the Estate of Paul Lauer. Purchased at Sotheby & Co., London as Lot 112 of the Oster Collection catalog, November 30, 1971. As noted in that catalog: exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Canada, 1951-53. This is the Beaufort-Codrington copy. The Dowager Duchess of Beaufort is mentioned in Byerley's pocket book among those who has subscribed for a copy of the Portland Vase, but there is a note 'Copy not received up to 1799'. It must therefore have been delivered between then and her death in 1831. The vase probably entered the Codrington family of Dodington Park, Gloucestershire when the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort's great grand-daughter, Lady Georgina Somerset, married Sir Christopher Codrington in 1836. It was bought by a dealer at the death of Lt. Gen. Alfred Codrington, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., in 1945. It was sold to Mr. Oster in 1953." Provenance: From the Estate of Paul Lauer. Literature: Wedgwood, by Robin Reilly, volume 1, illus. 1036, shows a copy from Tom Byerley's notebook from 1789 with list of subscribers clearly showing an entree for Dowager Duchess of Beaufort.