Featured Neo classical style copper bas relief

I recently took this plaque out of it's frame on the insistence of my old colleague - thought I might as well take a few snaps while it was unframed (frame is new so didn't photograph it)

The piece is copper and measures about 6" x 14" - it looks like repousse but I don't think it is, more likely cast? It is quite thin though, but imho a bit too thick to have been raised. There are several nail holes on the edges, outside of the image/border area so it might have been mounted like that originally.

Not sure from where or whence, any ideas or seen something like this before?

 

Looks like it was die stamped and a heavier "frame" brazed to it.

 

Yeah, it does look a bit like that, die stamping is for sure possible ..as far as brazing goes though, the "frame" is the same gauge and it doesn't really have a seam or anything other than copper there, just those blips at the corner, (copper too) .. pretty sure it's all one piece. Thanks for the reply.

 

I'm 100% on the "cast" train. The surface texture for one and those little balls (suggestive of voids in the mold) for two.

Expect @Bronwen and @Fid will have more useful info.

 

The bubbles look like dross and spatter from a cutting torch.But without seeing the whole piece in person it is hard to tell.

 

As I understand it, bas relief is raised from the surface and the back is flat. As others have said, your piece looks like it was stamped from behind.

But that is just my non expert understanding.

 

Well, sorta. Really doesn't have anything to do with the "back"

Definition from wikipedia:

Bas-relief is a type of relief (sculpture) that has less depth to the faces and figures than they actually have, when measured proportionately (to scale). This technique keeps the natural shapes of the figures and allows the work to be seen from many angles without twisting the figures themselves.​

 

fwiw, I just found out the title of this work (the Wedgwood title anyway) is "an offering to peace"

see here: https://www.ukauctioneers.com/aucti...s=50&sortBy=lotsort&lotView=list&imagesOnly=N

 

Oh good, you got there on your own. I was going to say it looks like the kind of neoclassical mishmash Wedgwood puts on its Jasper Ware, but can't see central figure well enough to say what it is about except an offering scene from the imagination of one of their modelers. Wondering if it could be a mold?

 

No, I don't think so - Wedgwood sprigs are a lot crisper!

I think the Wedgwood relief (and maybe this copper one?) must be based on models that Wedgwood had access to - maybe a frieze that actually exists in antiquity?

Of course it is quite possible that the copper plaque is based on a Wedgwood "original" ...don't think so though ..

 

fwiw, further research yielded this text:

(talking about Josiah Wedgwood's 1787 catalogue)

Among the medallions and bas-reliefs listed in his 1787 catalogue as having been modelled by Lady Templetown are ''An Offering to Peace" ''Domestic
Employment" "Family School," "Study" "Maria and her Dog" "The
Bourbonnais Shepherd" "Charlotte at the Tomb of Werther " — Goethe was then very popular in England — "Contemplation" and "Sportive Love".

The first named of these, "An offering to Peace," is the largest of the Templetown bas-reliefs. We know that, in many cases, she sent drawings and not merely "cut-outs," and it is entirely likely that this was among the subjects so handled.

More expressive, though, were the smaller studies of "Domestic Employment," with its graceful figure of a woman wielding the distaff, "Maria and Her Dog" visualizing an incident in Sterne's "Sentimental Journey," the "Bourbonnais Shepherd" and, among the most frequently reproduced of all, "Sportive Love," a seated figure of a draped Venus balancing Cupid on her foot.

The "Offering to Peace" was a classical subject treated, save perhaps for one figure, classically, but the others which breathed the romance of everyday life better caught and retained the fancy of the public. Indeed, it was this faculty of idealizing the inhabitants of her own world that gave Lady Templetown her vogue.
​

So it seems the "original" is the Wedgwood bas-relief after all!

​

 

Wedgwood used a mix of figures & scenes, some copied directly from engraved gems & other original compositions in neoclassical style. They also mixed & matched elements, combining things that were not originally together. Initially he was on good terms with James Tassie, who made & sold impressions of engraved gems, both 'antique' (what we would call antiquities) & others, right up to ones made by his contemporaries, which were typically copies from the antique or new compositions in neoclassical style. Their rivalry became pretty intense, Wedgwood stopped buying directly from Tassie, although there can be no doubt his modelers were highly influenced by the ubiquitous Tassie impressions. I also have no doubt this scene is not a copy of anything made in classical times. Agree my notion of a mold was off base, but your piece is the Wedgwood design in a different medium.

 

Wonder why the composition was altered so that lady third from left has her hand behind the figure to her right, hiding the wreath in the original?

 

The usual thing, not enough room, I guess - also pedestal is shorter, no doubt there are several small "artistic licences" involved!
<edit> Just viewed the title page of the pdf, and lo and behold the plaque is titled "the sacrifice to Flora" and in this version, the wreath is also hidden behind the other figure!!

This is rather interesting, I'm adding it to my library, you should probably do so as well - nice pdf from JStoR

https://ia801704.us.archive.org/27/items/jstor-20543086/20543086.pdf

 

While the article labels that first illustration as Sacrifice to Flora, no such composition is mentioned in the text, while Offering to Peace & the several others mentioned by Trevanion & Dean (think they cribbed from same source) are discussed at the end. There is nothing in the scene to support the idea that the worshipped figure is Flora; it does follow conventions for Peace, or the Pax Romana, with symbols both of victory & plenty. Better living through conquest. The laurel wreaths & palm frond indicate victory; the olive branch is of course for peace. Looks like they are entwined in the device on the plinth. The basket of fruit/flowers is similar to a cornucopia; the lady following bears wine or oil. To the other side a figure holds a balance, for law & justice. The amorini are, well, amorini.

Now, who is this A.W. Mills of the auctioned plaque? And who made your plaque?

 

I took that to mean that it was obviously the "offering to peace", but the MOMA had given it that title, as that plaque was sourced from their collection.

That late 19thc version in the auction plaque in the auction could have been incised by one of the workers at the factory - a common practice in Britain, personalizing factory productions for people on the production line. Conjecture of course, but a reasonable assumption imho.

I find it interesting that the copper is modeled after the earlier version of the frieze.
Questions remain ...When did Wedgwood change over production to the later version? Did the coppersmith have access to the early version?

I suppose whether the maker had access to an actual antique plaque or worked from the Josiah Wedgwood pattern book we shall never know. (Unless another copper shows up perhaps?)

A fun journey nevertheless!

 

the more I look at it, the more I think it could be old iron tole that has a copper cladding on the front side and that it was brazed under heat and pressure.
but I don't know enough to be sure. needs a specialist and hands-on inspection.

 

If it is copper plated iron,it can be checked with a magnet.

 

Would go a long way toward explaining the surface texture.

Ooh yes, do the magnet @blooey !

 

Well first of all it's soft and easy to distort, just like copper would be ...plus I checked the edge by scraping it and yes folks, copper all the way through.

<edit> Just took a strong magnet off the fridge ...non magnetic, kids!