A Leeds Pottery Creamware Centerpiece Made England Circa 1785

This fabulous 18th-century English creamware sculpture was made by the Leeds Pottery, Yorkshire, circa 1785. It consists of the two top pieces of the Leeds Platt Menage. The Platt Menage is perhaps the ultimate creamware creation. Four female figures in the form of winged mermaids hold up a covered bowl on their shoulders. The bowl is decorated with neoclassical decorations: portraits and scrolling vines. The cover is decorated with acanthus leaves and an egg and dart border along the edge. A beautiful figure of Venus surmounts the cover. The overall effect is magnificent!

The Platt Menage is now mounted on a block of cherry wood secured by museum putty (so it is removable).

Dimensions: 11.5″ tall x 5.5″ diameter at the widest point x 2.75″ across the base

Condition: Very good, with some excellent invisible restoration to several small chips on the mermaids’ wings.

According to Peter Walton, the attribution of this Platt Menage to Leeds Pottery is traditional (see pg. 121 in Creamware and other English Pottery at Temple Newsam House Leeds. Mr. Walton continues to describe the Platt Menage; in plate 462. It is described as having “Pale cream with a yellow glaze.” Walton quotes Jewitt 1878, I, p.477, fig 854, “They (Platt Menages) were greatly admired by the early collectors. It is well to show collectors to what degree of perfection in design these almost forgotten works had achieved.”