Proclaimed ‘the finest production of Art that has been brought to England’ by the artist John Flaxman (1755-1826) the 'Portland Vase' is considered one the greatest surviving masterpieces of Roman glass dating from the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27BC-14AD) and was widely copied ever since its discovery in 1582, south-east of Rome.

The vase's first connection with Britain came when it was acquired by the Scottish antiquarian and dealer James Byres who commissioned 60 plaster copies from James Tassie. Byrnes subsequently sold the vase for the princely sum of £1,000 to the renowned politician and collector Sir William Hamilton in 1783, from whom it was in turn, sold to the Duchess of Portland, whose name it now bears. Described by the diarist Horace Walpole as 'perfectly sober, and intoxicated only by empty vases', the Duchess installed the vase in her Portland Museum, Whitehall, in 1784.

Following the Duchess' death her son lent it to Josiah Wedgwood who produced arguably the most celebrated copies in unglazed stoneware at his Etruria factory near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire to great critical acclaim. From 1810 the vase was placed on display at the British Museum where it still resides today.