The Portland, or Barberini, Vase

This vase, now in the British Museum, was discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century.

It was found enclosed in a beautiful marble sarcophagus within a sepulchral chamber. This chamber is supposed to be the tomb of the Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, Julia Mammoa: it is under the Monte del Grano, two and one-half miles from Rome, on the road to Frascati.

The vase was deposited in the palace of the Barberini family in Rome, and remained there until 1770, when it was purchased by Byers the antiquarian, and sold by him to Sir William Hamilton, who carried it to England.

The vase was purchased from Sir William Hamilton by the Duchess of Portland for the sum of eighteen hundred guineas, and was placed in her museum at the Priory Gardens, Whitehall, London.

In 1810 the Duke of Portland deposited it in the British Museum.

On Feb. 7, 1845, the vase was wantonly dashed to pieces by William Lloyd, a mechanic visiting the museum, who is supposed to have been drunk or insane at the time. He took for his missile one of the Babylonian bricks then on exhibition.

He was tried for the offence, but, on account of a defect in the law, was fined only three pounds for destroying the glass shade covering the vase, which belonged to the trustees of the museum.

The pieces of the vase were gathered up, and so skilfully rejoined by Mr. Doubleday, that the vase is almost as perfect as ever.

A drawing of the fractured pieces hangs near the vase, which is now (1873) kept in the centre of what is called the Gold Room, a small room lighted by a glass dome.

In order to give visitors a view of both sides of the vase, it is made to revolve by means of a key in the hands of a special guard, who has constant charge of the vase, and receives a salary for this alone.

The Portland Vase is 9.75 inches in height, and 7.25 inches in diameter, and has two handles.

It is made of indigo-colored glass, ornamented with opaque white figures.

The dark ground of the vase, below the welding of the handles, has been covered with white enamel, out of which the figures were sculptured in the style of a cameo.

The Portland Vase proves that the manufacture of glass was carried to a high state of perfection in early times. It is supposed to be the work of a Greek artist residing in Rome, and some antiquarians date its production several centuries B.C.

While this beautiful work of art was in the possession of the Barberini family, a mould of it was taken by Tassie, who afterwards destroyed the mould. Cipriani and Bartolozzi made engravings of the vase in 1786.

The Barberini, or Portland, Vase will always be closely connected with the name of Wedgwood, as showing what the potter's art can effect. When this vase was put up at auction by Sir William Hamilton, Wedgwood was very desirous of buying it as a pattern from which to manufacture copies. The Duchess of Portland bid for it; but Wedgwood bid against her with such pertinacity, that it attracted the duke's attention, who, when he knew the cause of Wedgwood's solicitude, offered him the loan of the vase for an indefinite period if he would terminate his biddings. He did so, and the vase became the property of the Duchess of Portland.

Wedgwood thereupon employed the finest modellers, including Flaxman the great sculptor, also the most talented workmen in every branch, through whose aid he produced fifty copies of the vase, which were sold to subscribers at fifty guineas each.

Sir Joshua Reynolds bore testimony to the beautiful execution of these copies.

One of these stands in a case near the Gold Room in the British Museum.

Although the house of Wedgwood has made many vases resembling the Portland Vase, yet these exact copies, called "original copies," are very expensive, and very difficult to procure.

Mr. Benjamin Jones of Pittsburg obtained one of these original Wedgwood copies through James K. Kerr & Bros. of Philadelphia in 1871, for a hundred and fifty dollars. In 1874 Mr. Kerr wrote, offering three hundred and fifty dollars for the vase; and in 1876 he offered five hundred dollars for it, to resell to some person who desired an original copy; but it is still in Mr. Jones's possession.

In 1877 another reproduction of the celebrated vase was accomplished by Mr. John Northwood.

Extract from "Art fournal," April, 1877.

"One of the most exquisitely beautiful achievements, not only of the glass-cutter's, but the glass-maker's, art ever accomplished in this country, is the magnificent reproduction of the Portland, or Barberini, Vase just completed by Mr. John Northwood. To this it is with special and genuine pleasure we desire to call attention.

"Of the history of the original Portland Vase, dating back, as it does, to about the time of Christ, and confessedly standing out as the most valuable and perfectly unique of its particular art extant, it is not our intention to speak: we desire only to place on record our opinion of the modern production of this priceless gem, and to congratulate our own nation on having produced an artist capable of so vying in every intricacy of the process with the most famous workers of glass in ancient Greek or Roman times.

"The vase, which, thanks to its liberal-minded owner, Mr. Philip Pargeter, we have had the opportunity of carefully examining, is decidedly a chef-d' aeuvre of art, and is without a fault, even in its simple and unimportant parts. It is literally a reproduction of the Portland Vase, of the same size, and in the same material (glass), and effected in the same manner, actual hand-cutting in every part. Every leaf and stem, each detail of figure, and every minute portion of the original, have been literally copied in hard glass, cut by the graver, not by the wheel; and the result is satisfactory in the highest degree.

"The vase was itself manufactured by Mr. Pargeter, who after numberless trials, and much patient thought, succeeded in imitating the full rich blue of the original. This he coated to a sufficient and considerable thickness with opal glass, closely and faultlessly welded to the body. This was a matter of great difficulty; but Mr. Pargeter's indomitable energy and skill overcame all obstacles, and the vase was at length ready for Mr. Northwood to operate upon. His mode of proceeding was to cut away by hand, with chisels and gravers, the opal, and carve upon it the entire designs of the original. This, there is no doubt, was the process employed on the original by the 'verrier' nearly two thousand years back; and it was only by closely following this mode of operation patiently, slowly, and surely, that Mr. Northwood could hope to succeed in his self-imposed task. For the entire ground of the design, the opal has been chiselled away, and the surface of the blue-black glass polished; while the figures, trees, etc., composing the design, are left in relief in the opal, and carved with consummate skill and unapproachable delicacy. In the higher, and, of course, thicker, parts, the opal retains its intense whiteness, while in others only a thin film is allowed to remain; and thus the softest and most delicate graduations of color are obtained. Mr. Northwood has devoted three entire years with unceasing daily work to the production of this inestimable treasure, and he has had the advantage of special facilities granted by the museum authorities for actually carving the glass in front of the original. It is, as we have said, a perfect masterpiece of art, as unique and as valuable as its ancient prototype. We know of nothing in modern times that will compare with it."