Urn
Maker & role
Unknown, Manufacturer
Production date
19th Century
Object detail
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 100 x Diam: 47cm (H: 1000 x Diam: 470mm)
Signature & marks
None
Credit line
Purchase, 2010
Vaucluse House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Vaucluse House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Description
White painted cast iron urn with gadroon and reverse gadroon detailing to the base, sides and lip, on matching cast iron pedestal. The matching pedestal, proportioned to the Roman Doric Order, has plain tapering sides and moulded capital and base.
Garden ornaments such as vases and urns have been used since antiquity and were advocated for use by 18th - 19th century landscape theorists including Humphrey Repton, Knight and Loudon. Produced in stone, terracotta, ‘Coade stone’ and cast iron they were used widely as part of the Gardenesque style, advocated by J. C. Loudon, which emphasized the artistic nature of created landscapes. J.C. Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia Of Cottage, Farm, And Villa Architecture And Furniture (London, 1839 edition) defined a vase as ‘an open vessel’, which frequently ‘has soil and a plant placed in it’, as distinct from an urn which is a covered vessel. He decried what he saw as the debasement of many artistic vases into ‘flowerpots’ and advocated the sculptural agave (Agave americana) as the only suitable plant for a vase. The placement of garden ornaments such as urns and vases using scientific principles is also discussed by Loudon in his An Encyclopædia of gardening: comprising the theory and practice of Horticulture, floriculture, arboriculture ... (London, 1860 edition, ‘Accidental accompaniments to the Materials of Landscape’, pp 472-7).
Vaucluse House is furnished to reflect its occupancy by William Charles Wentworth, his wife Sarah and their family 1827-1900 with an emphasis on the family’s residence during the periods 1827-1853 and 1861-62. At Vaucluse House William Charles Wentworth followed architectural and gardening tastes set by Government House, Sydney on numerous occasions from the completion of Gothic Revival stables in 1829 to the installation of a composition stone fountain of the same pattern as that installed on the Government House eastern terrace in 1862. While no historical views of the Vaucluse House garden shows ornament such as vases or urns, it is likely that the highly sculpted form of the Vaucluse House pleasure garden was ornamented with urns in a similar way to the Government House eastern and western terraces. In addition, publications such as Loudon’s Magazine of Gardening were widely available in the colony and had a direct influence on highly ornamental gardens such as Brownlow Hill, Cobbitty (laid out by Alexander and George Macleay from 1828 onwards). This vase – similar to examples at Camden Park and Gilbulla – has been acquired to adorn the shrubbery, where it will form a focal point for the path network, accentuating its circuitous nature and overall Gardenesque layout.
Garden ornaments such as vases and urns have been used since antiquity and were advocated for use by 18th - 19th century landscape theorists including Humphrey Repton, Knight and Loudon. Produced in stone, terracotta, ‘Coade stone’ and cast iron they were used widely as part of the Gardenesque style, advocated by J. C. Loudon, which emphasized the artistic nature of created landscapes. J.C. Loudon, in his Encyclopaedia Of Cottage, Farm, And Villa Architecture And Furniture (London, 1839 edition) defined a vase as ‘an open vessel’, which frequently ‘has soil and a plant placed in it’, as distinct from an urn which is a covered vessel. He decried what he saw as the debasement of many artistic vases into ‘flowerpots’ and advocated the sculptural agave (Agave americana) as the only suitable plant for a vase. The placement of garden ornaments such as urns and vases using scientific principles is also discussed by Loudon in his An Encyclopædia of gardening: comprising the theory and practice of Horticulture, floriculture, arboriculture ... (London, 1860 edition, ‘Accidental accompaniments to the Materials of Landscape’, pp 472-7).
Vaucluse House is furnished to reflect its occupancy by William Charles Wentworth, his wife Sarah and their family 1827-1900 with an emphasis on the family’s residence during the periods 1827-1853 and 1861-62. At Vaucluse House William Charles Wentworth followed architectural and gardening tastes set by Government House, Sydney on numerous occasions from the completion of Gothic Revival stables in 1829 to the installation of a composition stone fountain of the same pattern as that installed on the Government House eastern terrace in 1862. While no historical views of the Vaucluse House garden shows ornament such as vases or urns, it is likely that the highly sculpted form of the Vaucluse House pleasure garden was ornamented with urns in a similar way to the Government House eastern and western terraces. In addition, publications such as Loudon’s Magazine of Gardening were widely available in the colony and had a direct influence on highly ornamental gardens such as Brownlow Hill, Cobbitty (laid out by Alexander and George Macleay from 1828 onwards). This vase – similar to examples at Camden Park and Gilbulla – has been acquired to adorn the shrubbery, where it will form a focal point for the path network, accentuating its circuitous nature and overall Gardenesque layout.
Accession number
V2010/2-1:2
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