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Hi all,
Some of you may recognize this piece - I bought it from our friend Jeremy Beer. It's a rare en grisaille tea caddy with a very unusual scene of a donkey carrying a human head and a man reaching out to it. Unfortunately, it isn't unrecorded like the Pope's Villa plate being recorded in the Hervouet & Bruno book, but the source print has not been located until today:
The Hervouet & Bruno reference translates roughly to:
Curious subject, perhaps illustrating a fable. Under the pack-saddle of the mule carrying a heterogeneous load, a human head emerges.
I've found the source engraving! It is from Samuel Croxall's "Fables of Aesop and Others". The book was initially printed in 1722, but continued to be reprinted throughout the 19th century. The donkey does not carry a human head after all - I'm not sure how that got there! The donkey is from the Croxall's engraving of "The Ass Eating Thistle". However, the man isn't present! Having gone through the entire 329 page book, I am certain the man is pulled from "The Horse and the Loaded Ass". Interestingly, it is on a separate but following page from the donkey engraving. I was under the impression that loose leaf engravings would've been sent to China to be copied on porcelain, but this might provide support that whole books were sent to China for certain pages to be copied. I wonder if the man was intentionally requested, or whether it was the painter who decided to add him. Here they are:
Either way, it is always fun finding these source prints. I've also identified one other that will be published in June, but I'll put a post on that one separately when it's available online! That one isn't my own piece so I can't share it, but I've been helping Nicolas Fournery a bit with his upcoming exhibition, so keep your eyes peeled!
Just as an aside - I've been thinking about the Pope's Villa plate again because of this process, and I looked into it more. I don't think this was ordered as a whole service or variable service with different home scenes from the original book. When the house was demolished in 1808 despite objections from the community, it inspired artworks "mourning the loss of the home" such as J.M.W. Turner's Pope's Villa at Twickenham. Perhaps the plate was also commissioned to mourn the loss of the home after its demolition? Here's the link to that original post just in case anyone is interested:
Kind regards,
John
Most excellent, fine investigation, I'm glad it is not a tete humaine, it might put one off their cup of tea. 😀
Thank you, Sharon! The reality is much more palatable than the human head idea 🤣 One of the weirdest engravings I came across was a 17th-century French engraving with a donkey carrying two baskets of severed women's heads to a workshop where men "reforged" them on an anvil - apparently representing a cure for "madness". How far we've come, and I'm glad it's not that one. I think the painter just added a face for fun!
That's so cool to find the sources for this image! I agree with the theory that books or several prints were sent to to the workshop and there was some cobbling of source images.
Seriously, I don't know what's going on around the donkey's forequarters: I see a face and another donkey head. Or, er, something... Must be a misinterpretation of the original print. Or a fable gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Thank you, Steve! 🤣 I'm so glad you find this as interesting as I do! I've only been sharing my "discoveries" of previously unidentified source prints, but I might do a post on the others I have that have already been identified in the literature. It's interesting seeing why patterns appear on Chinese export porcelain.
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