Enameled Vase and Dish by Morel, Antique Goldsmith's Work Print, 1852

About this sheet

This original antique chromolithograph of 1852 shows an enameled and jeweled rock crystal vase with a great enameled dish, goldsmith's work by Morel. The vase, engraved with foliate scrolls and mounted in gold, stands at the center of the sheet on a spreading foot. Behind it rises a great circular dish, its broad rim set with panels of enamel in rose, green and gold, and the crystal vase carries a winged dragon handle crowned by a small figure. A second covered vase with a leafy finial and a mask handle stands at the left, and a small enameled figure at the right. The group is drawn against a shaded drapery. The lettering beneath names the sheet as Enamelled Vase and Dish executed by Morell, for Webb of London, with Dalziel as draftsman, M. Digby Wyatt as director and F. Bedford as lithographer, and the imprint of the fifteenth of October 1852.

The plate comes from The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, Matthew Digby Wyatt's record of the Great Exhibition of 1851, published in London by Day and Son, lithographers to the Queen, between 1851 and 1853 and dedicated by permission to Prince Albert. It was issued to subscribers in forty parts in printed paper wrappers, and the two volumes together carry about a hundred and sixty large folio plates. The project came from the publishers, who approached Wyatt soon after the exhibition opened wanting to show, on a large scale, what color printing could do for industrial education. Chromolithography was then new and costly, and each color on a sheet was printed from its own stone. Francis Bedford, John Sleigh, John Alfred Vinter and their colleagues drew and lithographed the plates under Wyatt's direction, and every plate carries its own imprint and date.

The name given on the plate as Morell is Jean Valentin Morel, the Paris goldsmith who worked in London from 1849 and showed enameled and jeweled mounts on hardstone at the Great Exhibition, where his work attracted particular attention. The plate shows what chromolithography could do with gold, enamel and crystal. It is a natural choice for a dining room, a drawing room or an office, and it hangs well on its own in a wide mat.

Light age toning. A small patch of brown spotting in the upper margin and a few faint specks at the left. Light handling wear to both upper corners, with a slight irregularity to the top edge. The printed image is clean.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.