This pair of richly-decorated vases from a garniture of three were purchased from the Spode manufactory by King George IV on 2nd August 1822. The contemporary invoice from Spode & Copeland records: 'Elegant Royal Blue Grounds gold chased figures and ornaments with Compartments of Historical Paintings, viz - 1. Very Large Vase, with the Figure of Cleopatra 2. -- less -- Perseus and Andromeda' at a cost of £51,10. Although the invoice is undated, the Royal Keeper of the Privy Purse obtained a receipt for payment of the account on 2nd August 1822.

George IV had a long association with the Spode factory and is recorded making purchases in 1806 as Prince of Wales, again as Prince Regent and during the 1820s as King. During this period, the King made a number of purchases at the factory; a payment of £440 was made for 'Jars Bowls and Pedestals' intended for the Banqueting Room at Brighton Pavilion, together with six Chinese porcelain pagodas supported on richly-gilt and enamelled Spode pedestals intended for the Music Room, costing £305.17s.6d. The King also purchased several services from the factory, including one that was probably used on the Royal Yacht, see the plate from The Contents of Trelissick House including the Copeland China Collection, sale Bonhams, Feock, Trelissick House and Gardens, 24 July 2013, lot 575.

All enamelling at the Spode factory during this period was subcontracted to Henry Daniell, who up until August 1822, employed a team of decorators within the extensive Spode pottery complex. Unfortunately the factory practice seems to have been to enter the artist's name in the price fixing books rather than the pattern books and these are now missing from the Spode archives. There are references in the factory archives to some of the best flower painters at the factory, such as Sherwin, for example, who was responsible for the decoration of the Prince of Wales's order of 1806, but it was not until the 1860s that artists were permitted to sign their work. The mythological scenes on the present lot, which depict 'Historical Paintings' are of the highest quality and may be by the same hand as the pair of vases of the same shape in the Spode Museum Collection (WTC.389), one of which is decorated with a portrait of a lady and a quotation from A Midsummer Night's Dream and the other with a portrait of a lady and a ballad, see Leonard Whiter, op. cit., London, 1978, no. 176. Appearing in the Spode Shape Book of 1820, this form is recorded as 'New Shape French Jar', No. 35 and was produced in nine sizes of which the present lot are mid-size.