The Royal Crescent Vase JM1/12

Against her wishes, Jane Austen’s family moved to Bath when she was 24. She already had written one novel – Northhanger Abbey – but during the nine years she lived in the fashionable spa town she did little writing, possibly because she was caught up in the whirl of Bath’s celebrated social life. What Austen undoubtedly did was observe the characters of the Regency spa elite, many of whom would feature as characters in her later novels.

Perhaps some of these characters inhabit the world where a stroll down Bath’s magnificent Royal Crescent was de rigueur. Top Moorcroft Pottery designer Paul Hilditch’s magnificent The Royal Crescent portrays the sweeping Crescent, wrapping it cleverly around the vase.

The focal point of the vase is a hot air balloon landing in front of the Crescent and the excitement it causes. As Moorcroft comment:

‘With Hobson-style horse drawn carts, popular Regency dog breeds, and a multitude of waist-coated gentlemen in tight pantaloons and top hats; ladies in ribboned bonnets with high Empire waistlines, straight ankle-length dresses, with some, unsupported by petticoats, and shockingly short sleeves on their gloved arms – the tittering of a Regency gathering can almost be heard.’

The Royal Crescent Vase JM1/12 comes in an open edition.