Hand-painted Royal Worcester potpourri with gilded pierced lid
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- Royal Doulton "hn" Numbering System - The Royal Doulton "HN" numbering system has proven to be a very orderly way of identifying each individual Royal Doulton figure. The "HN" refers to Harry Nixon who was in charge of the new figure painting department in Doulton's very early years.
The HN numbering system has endured the test of time to be still used today. Over time, Royal Doulton has issued over 4000 individual HN numbers although they all are not new models - some are assigned to specific colourway variations and some cross over to be used to identify animal figures. - Gilding - Gilding is a method of ornamentation whereby a thin sheet of gold metal is applied to items made of wood, leather, ceramics, glass and silver for decorative purposes.
For furniture including mirrors, the sheet of gold is usually applied over a coating of gesso. Gesso is a mixture of plaster of Paris and gypsum mixed with water and then applied to the carved wooden frames of mirrors and picture frames as a base for applying the gold leaf. After numerous coats of gesso have been applied, allowed to dry and then sanded a coat of "bole", a usually red coloured mixture of clay and glue is brushed on and allowed to dry, after which the gold leaf is applied. Over time parts of the gilding will rub off so the base colour can be seen. In water gilding, this was generally a blue colour, while in oil gilding, the under layer was often yellow. In Victorian times, gilders frequently used red as a pigment beneath the gold leaf.
Metal was often gilded by a process known as fire gilding. Gold mixed with mercury was applied and heated, causing the mercury to evaporate, the long-term effect of which was to kill or disable the craftsman or woman from mercury poisoning. The pursuit of beauty has claimed many victims, not the least of which were the artists who made those pieces so highly sought after today.
This item has been included into following indexes:
- Lockyer, Thomas - Royal Worcester artists 18
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Royal Worcester (England), item types
- other 3,388
- pot pourri 290
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