Empire Porcelain Company was producing porcelain and fine chinaware at Stoke On Kent from 1896 until 1967, although the company did undergo some ownership changes, particularly after 1951 when Empire was acquired by H. Kaufmann Ltd, a Suffolk-based manufacturer of lawnmowers (of all things!) Fortunately the product was still produced with meticulous care but eventually they could not complete with "modern mass produced" products and the company folded in 1967.
EMPIRE - Medium Size Urn
Circa 1954 (produced in January 1954 to be precise - see the backstamp details below)
Lidded
Upon very close inspection, it has been determined that ALL of the decoration (both the coloured centre picture and the Chintz work) have been decorated by hand. We have seen other examples of this with Empire porcelain, such attention to detail which must have taken the artist's such a long time to complete.
Design: Gold Chintz flowers with a central artwork on one side depicting a mythological scene of four women. We like to try and identify the scenes depicted on my wife's china and porcelain but in this case we really don't know. The women look to be muses or goddesses, but which ones? The muse to the far right is holding what appears to be a string but it is glowing Orange and at the end of that string is a Green (glowing) "something" The muse in the background is holding a pouring jug in one hand and a cup or bowl is being held by the muse on the far right side of the scene. The central muse is looking upwards at the right hand muse and again, we can see a bright Green "something" that appears to be passed from the central muse to that on the right.
The side handles with tassles dominate the urn and are finished in heavily applied Gold.
The lid is also very "busy" with Gold Chintz flower designs with a large holding knob at the top, also heavily adorned in Gold.
DIMENSIONS:
The urn stands 11.5 Inches or 295mm high, has a diameter of 100mm in the centre and the stable base foot is a square measuring 84mm x 84mm
The throat of the urn is 30mm diameter (this makes it difficult to reach right down at the base)
WEIGHT: 600g
BACKSTAMP DETAILS:
Here is a photograph from the underside of the urn ... note the fairly faint (but still readily visible) artist mark and the more obvious Gold gilder's mark. These Empire products were often copied by others and we guess this is the reason for THREE different backstamps ... one is impressed into the porcelain, another is printed and under the glaze (this stamp identifies exactly the month and year it was made) and yet another printed mark under the glaze right in the centre.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
In a word, superb! This is no exaggeration, after almost 75 years this urn is in such good condition. Of course it is something you wouldn't handle every day in any case, my wife has had this piece (she used to have a pair but no longer) since the mid 1980's and she thinks this is first time she has looked at it closely in the past 40+ years.
NO crazing is evident (wet & dry tested)
NO cracks of any kind
Gold gilding is in amazing condition, to be super critical I would judge that there is the tiniest of wear to the top of the artwork frame and also right up on the top of the knob. The crazy Gold Chintz design is difficult to check EVERYWHERE but I could not see rubbing or other damage to any part. I even looked extremely closely at this Gold workmanship and it has definitely been created by hand, not a transfer. The edges are "feathered" and I can see small application differences between each part of the design.
The coloured artwork looks to be in very nice condition also, although once again when I looked very closely (powerful magnifying eyeglass) I can see the loosely defined edges and some little areas where the colouring went where it shouldn't have.
Oh, I did notice some "dirt" right down inside at the base (it is in the photograph) and washing did remove most of this but it is so difficult to get down inside such a narrow urn - it is still just a little "dirty looking" but not terrible.
This Empire urn is now within a sealed clear plastic to protect it from the environment and it is eagerly awaiting a new home to adorn! (especially if you have one already and wish to make a pair)
