Painted with the ancient mother goddess Rhea or Cybele riding a lion and holding a tambour (?), flanked by the sun and the moon.
Although this subject does occur on ancient Greek vases (see MFA Boston 10.187), the Wedgwood version is taken from an engraving in Bernard de Montfaucon L’antiquité expliquée, et représentée en figures (1655-1741), Vol. I, plate II (opposite p. 8). This book was listed amongst the books belonging to the Wedgwood and Bentley partnership on the 10th August 1770[1].
Condition:
Minute chips to edges of handles
Provenance:
Oxborrow Collection
Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Berkshire, 1994
E & H Manners
Lindsay Grigsby Collection, acquired from above in 1994
Jeffrey Milkins Collection, no. 877
Literature:
Diana Edwards, Black Basalt, p.14 colour pl. 7, captioned ‘unmarked Wedgwood and Bentley’
References:
Bernard de Montfaucon, L’antiquité expliquée, et représentée en figures, (1655-1741), Tome I, plate II (opposite p. 8)
Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, (Stockton Press 1989), vol. 1
MFA Boston
https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/T7.1.html
Price: £7,500
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[1] Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, (Stockton Press 1989), vol. 1, p. 433