Moorcroft The Royal Crescent Vase

The Royal Crescent

THE JANE AUSTEN COLLECTION

Moorcroft designer brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive in a collection launched in August 2023 at Jane Austen’s village of Chawton in Hampshire.

Designer: Paul Hilditch

Shape:  JM1/12

Edition: Numbered

Size: H 30cm

When the celebrated author Jane Austen made Bath her home, from 1801 to 1806, the city was a thriving spa resort, popular with fashionable society. Indeed, the elegant architecture of Bath provided inspiration for two of her six published novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

Paul Hilditch has taken The Royal Crescent (built 1767 -1774), a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the city of Bath, wrapping it cleverly around the vase, into the heart of Austen’s era. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger, the Crescent is the United Kingdom’s greatest example of Georgian architecture.

Dramatically, Paul combines a detailed architectural vision with a high society gathering to view one of the regions famous air balloon extravaganzas – the Moorcroft designer even lands a balloon on the well-groomed grass. 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.