{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O332641"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O332641/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG5268/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AG5268/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AG5268","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O332641/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O332641","accessionNumber":"537-1865","objectType":"Fountain","titles":[{"title":"Fountain","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This unusual conical object adorned with shells, lizards, snakes, crayfish and three eel's or serpent's heads that act as spouts, probably cast from life, would have stood in a basin on a dining table to function as a fountain. It is in the manner of the French Renaissance potter Bernard Palissy (1510-c.1589), famed for this highly ornate relief decoration of vegetation and animals using moulds cast from real specimens. \r\n\r\nThis fountain is one of very few objects that can be quite firmly dated to the period just after Palissy's own years of activity, probably the first half of the seventeenth century, and is therefore classed as 'post-Palissy'. An almost identical fountain appears as a drawing in a manuscript by Étiennde de Faye (1670-1750), made between 1690 and 1738 and now in the collections of the Amiens-Métropole libraries. De Faye, who was deaf and nonverbal, was a resident of the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Prémontrés, and known for erudition and draughtsmanship. The manuscript he illustrated was a catalogue of the cabinet of curiosities held at the Abbey, written by Pierre Postel.","physicalDescription":"Modelled in the form of a rock with lizards, frogs and shells.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Earthenware","id":"x29356"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Buff earthenware, modelled, painted with coloured glazes","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Earthenware","id":"THES48964"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2006AG5268"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"137 (VA)","id":"THES49876"},"free":"","case":"44","shelf":"8","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Fountain","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"possibly made in a workshop in Paris"},{"place":{"text":"Paris","id":"x29068"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1600-50","earliest":"1595-01-01","latest":"1650-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bought","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"19.25","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"taken from Register","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bought from the Soulages Collection.\r\nA very similiar fountain, still with its figure mounted on the top, is at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens. It has been attributed to a Paris workshop (possibly) and dated to the first half of the 17th century.","historicalContext":"A complete table fountain of this form was sold by Sir Gyles Isham, 12th Baronet (Sotheby's, May 21 1957, lot 111 - illustrated). This fountain was exhibited at the Special Loan Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum of 1862 when in the collection of Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet (1819-1903). It appears in The Catalogue of the special exhibition of works of art of the mediaeval, Renaissance, and more recent periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862 (London, 1863), no. 8133 as 'Large Palissy ware fountain and plateau. Sir C. Isham'. The same fountain without its basin but with a sticker from the loan exhibition was offered at Sotheby's London, June 9 2026, lot 66.\r\n\r\nAnother fountain and basin was exhibited at South Kensington in 1862. It appears in the Catalogue of the special exhibition, Section 8, no.1244, p.108. Described as: Table fountain, forming a circular plateau, from the centre of which rises a steep conical hill or rock; the surface of the piece is entirely covered with pebbles and shells, frogs, lizards and other animals. At the summit are serpents' heads, forming the water jets. Height: 8 in; diameter: 17 in.","briefDescription":"Table fountain of buff lead-glazed earthenware modelled with reptiles and shells and decorated with coloured glazes, made in France, possibly Paris, ca. 1600-50.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Techne, no.47 (2019). Centre de recherché et de restauration des musées de France. Bernard Palissy, Nouveaux regards sur la céramique francaise aux XVI et XVII siecles (page 84, figure 2)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"J. C. Robinson, Catalogue of the special exhibition of works of art of the mediæval, Renaissance, and more recent periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862, London, 1863, section 8, p. 108, no. 1244 & section 40, various addenda, p. 727, no. 8133."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pierre Postel, Explication du cabinet de la bibliothèque de Saint Jean d’Amiens, selon l’ordre des planches dessinées par M. de Faye, Bibliothèque d'Amiens métropole, Ms 400E, 1736-1738, 2 volumes"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"frog","id":"x30181"},{"text":"lizards","id":"x37701"},{"text":"shells","id":"x30562"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["537-1865"],"accessionNumberNum":"537","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1865,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-06-10","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}