Wedgwood Email Ombrant ‘Tremblay Ware’ Majolica Plate

Victorian

Circa 1878 | England

A rare nineteenth century antique Wedgwood ribbon pattern majolica plate with a central motif showcasing the email ombrant technique created by Baron Alexis du Tremblay of Rubelles porcelain works. The term email ombrant comes from ‘ombre’ which is shadow in French and ‘email’ which is enamel.

This plate truly exemplifies the best of Rubelles and Wedgwood, with all the best early Wedgwood techniques employed such as the woven basket weave pattern, ribbon pattern edge and gorgeous glaze colours, including turquoise blue and tortoiseshell. The mould for this plate is of a young man in eighteenth century dress, wearing a wig and holding a drinking glass and is likely to be Rubelles mould purchased by Wedgwood (see The Gen) as it has been seen on a French Rubelles majolica plate.

DIMENSIONS: Diameter 22 cm.

SIGNATURES, MARKINGS & INSCRIPTIONS: There are a group of interesting marks on the bottom of this plate. They include impressed WEDGWOOD, date code NUG, and M, A, and (Model) M 2532. The date code likely represents November 1878.

CONDITION: The plate is in excellent condition with wear consistent with an antique age and use. There is no evident restoration.

REFERENCES: For an example of a similar plate see Victoria & Albert Museum, Accession Number S.1269-1982. 

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THE GEN

“A very different type of Wedgwood majolica was known as Email Ombrant. In Email Ombrant the design is cut into the body of clay in graduated intaglio depressions. The intaglio design is then flooded with a translucent majolica glaze. The deeper gravities form the darker areas of the design, while the shallower depressions produce highlights and outlines of figures. Baron Alexis du Tremblay of Rubelles porcelain works near Melun developed Email Ombrant and patented the technique in 1842.

The Rubelles dessert and tablewares exhibited at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London were awarded a gold medal and Wedgwood became interested in the process. Wedgwood was able to obtain some of the prize-winning wares, and experimented with making its own variations. In the early 1860s the modelers Rowland Morris, Thomas Greatbatch, and Hamlet Bourne were responsible for perfecting Wedgwood Tremblay ware and by 1865 pieces were sold through Thomas Goode and Company in London. In 1872 the original Rubelles molds and designs were put up for sale… Wedgwood obtained by this transaction over 2,500 molds and designs, the formulas for the Email Ombrant glazes, and the original patent, for 3,200 francs.

Series of Tremblay dessert plates (c. 1870) have combinations of reticulated or butterfly-design borders, with centres of designs of fruit or scenic views. Some of these decorated plates are octagonal, with characteristic Wedgwood modelling around the periphery, illustrating the combination of techniques of two venerable factories. Since Wedgwood used both the original Tremblay artists, identification of French or English examples can be made only by the marks ‘WEDGWOOD’ or ‘Rubelles, S. & M.’ in an oval, or full mark ‘Fabrique de Rubelles (S. & M.) Brevet D’Invention. S.G.D.G Pat. 89, St Denis Paris’.” (Majolica: A Complete History and Illustrated Survey, Marilyn G. Karmason with Joan B. Stacke, Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1989, pp 78–80)

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