After my last blog post on my huge photorealist painting, I’ve decided to do another on a very different treasured object in my home.

This time it’s a piece of Art Nouveau pottery I inherited via my late mother from her four older unmarried sisters. It portrays a lady with a water jug at a fountain, which pours into a pool resembling a shell. One of my sisters had shoved it in the back of a cupboard and was about to drop it off at the charity shop when she asked my siblings and me if any of us wanted it. She was met with curled lips, disdain and cries of “Throw it in the bin!” from the others, so I decided to give it a home.

Yes, it is rather kitschy and old-fashioned, but I think it fits well in pride of place on my (rather old-fashioned!) Edwardian fireplace. (I must remember to do a blog post about the discovery of the fireplace!). It looks a whole lot better there than it did on the ugly 1960s tiled fireplace my aunts installed in their Liverpool home to replace the original Edwardian one, after my Grandma died. Even in such an inappropriate setting, when I was a small child in the 50s, I LOVED that piece. In fact, I coveted it. So, whilst it might not be to my taste nowadays, it brings back many memories – and the lady at the fountain does look as if she belongs in the centre of my mantelpiece.

The work has no maker’s markings and sports a chip at the top. There is a hollow section behind the fountain head which seems to be designed to hold a flower – though I think that would be overkill. It has just occurred to me that maybe it was intended to hold something else – perhaps matches, spills for candles or pipe-cleaners.  Up close, it looks rather crudely made and I assume it has no value. But there’s something about it when viewed at a distance that elevates it to something special. And, as a bearer of childhood memories, it is priceless to me.

I have done some googling to find other pieces like it and think it most closely resembles Royal Dux – but they used very distinctive markings and this has no trademark at all. I have found several Royal Dux pieces featuring shell fountains and ladies collecting water – even incorporating the same hollow vase section.

Here’s an example:

Were it an actual Royal Dux Bohemian piece from the early 20^th century it could be worth around $1300 but I suspect it’s a cheap knock-off. Not a forgery, as a forger would have tried to reproduce the trademarks, but a cheap copy. It is however at least seventy years old.

I can’t ask my mum about it since she’s no longer around. Her family (one brother and six sisters) were from Dublin originally and had lots of pieces of Irish pottery – mostly Belleek – so it’s possible it originates from Ireland. My grandfather was a sea captain so he may have picked it up during his long voyages as a gift for Grandma. Maybe somewhere in the world someone was producing cheap copies of this type of piece.  Alas, I will never know.

Anyway, I’m delighted to welcome the lady at the fountain into my home. As she’s Edwardian in style and probably period, she can act as a good luck charm for me as I write my work-in-progress, set in Edwardian England.

What do you think of her? Should I give her a name? Any suggestions?