English: Well Spring Carafe, 1847-1851 designed by Richard Redgrave V&A Museum no. 4503-1901

Techniques - Glass, painted in enamel

Artist/designer - A. J. F. Christy, Stangate Glass Works (manufacturers), Richard Redgrave, (CB, RA, ARA), born 30/04/1804 - died 14/12/1888 (designers), Felix Summerly's Art Manufactures (commissioned by)

Place - Lambeth, England

Dimensions - Height 26 cm (maximum), Width 13 cm (maximum)

Object Type - This carafe, in a design known as the 'Well Spring', by the painter and writer Richard Redgrave (1804-1888), later Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, was one of the designs made for Felix Summerly's Art Manufactures. It is an example of early Victorian design especially promoted by Henry Cole (1808-1882), in which the decoration reflects the function of the object.

Historical Associations - In response to the Society of Arts' offer, made in 1845, of a prize for designs for a tea service, Henry Cole, using the pseudonym Felix Summerly, produced a design that was executed by Minton. This won a silver medal in the competition held in 1846 and the experience led Cole to believe that it would 'promote public taste' if well-known painters and sculptors could be persuaded to produce designs for similar functional objects. Accordingly, in 1847 he founded 'Summerly's Art Manufactures', which lasted for about three years, until his preoccupation with the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought it to an end. However, for some years afterwards individual firms continued to produce objects originally made for Summerly's.

Design -

In 1847 Henry Cole noted that 'RR [Richard Redgrave] and Bell [John Bell] thought Artists ought not to design for Manufacturers: apart from Art Manufactures'. But later, Redgrave himself observed that fine artists were actually to blame for committing the prime error, which was 'rather to construct ornament than ornament construction'. The Well Spring was Redgrave's first design for the Summerly scheme; it was completed and handed over to Cole on 10 January 1847 and sold to J. F. Christy of Lambeth less than a month later. The manufactured article in its original form with handles was described as 'the Water Jug', and was shown in the Society of Arts Exhibition of Recent British Manufactures in 1848. In this form it was also made in porcelain and promised in Parian by Minton. By the end of 1847 in glass, it was offered as a single-handled jug, as a 'caraffe and glass, 17s 6d [87.5p]', and as the handle-less version (as here) at œ1 5s. (œ1.25). Cole's prices were erratic.