A rare J F Christy (Stangate Glass Works, Lambeth) enamelled 'Well Spring' water carafe and tumbler, circa 1847-50
Designed by Richard Redgrave for 'Summerly's Art Manufactures', of shouldered ovoid bottle form with a gilt rim, finely decorated with a band of reeds issuing from the base, a flowerhead border around the shoulder, the matching tumbler of bell shape with an everted rim, carafe 15.9cm high, the carafe marked 'FS' above 'R REDGRAVE A R A' in black above the monogram 'CLS' in black and red (2)
Footnotes:
It is very rare to find a 'Well Spring' carafe and tumbler surviving together such as this. A 'caraffe and glass' were advertised by Henry Cole's 'Summerly's Art Manufactures', founded in 1847, in December that year for 17/6d. Cole, using the alias Felix Summerly, commissioned different artists including Richard Redgrave RA to design a range of everyday objects which were intended to be affordable. Redgrave's notion was that an object's ornamentation should suggest its function, so the choice of reed decoration would have been particularly appropriate for a water carafe. When full, the grasses would appear to be emerging from a spring. An identical carafe is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.C.165-1992) and another is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (inv. no.2017.118), neither of which have beakers. Very little is known about John Fell Christy's glassworks in Lambeth, but he specialised in painted decoration in the style of Richardson's of Stourbridge.