A WEDGWOOD MODEL OF THE PORTLAND VASE, late 19th century, after the Roman original, decorated with nude and semi-nude classical figures moulded in relief against a blue jasper dip ground, probably depicting the myth of Peleus and Thetis, the basal disc with a portrait figure wearing the Phrygian cap, said to depict Paris, 26.5cm high, impressed 'WEDGWOOD' with date code 'THP' for 1861 or 1887 FOOTNOTES: The original Roman cameo glass Portland vase, now in the British Museum (accession no. 1945,0927.1), is thought to have been made in the first quarter of the 1st century AD in Rome. Originally of amphora shape, the base has been broken and replaced by a disc of a slightly later date and different colour. The vase is regarded as a masterpiece of classical art. Said to have been discovered in a marble sarcophagus in a tomb near Rome in 1582, it was bought by Cardinal Franceso Barberini in 1626, remaining in the Barberini family until 1780. Then it was then sold to James Byres, the Scottish antiquary, passing via Sir William Hamilton to the Dowager Duchess of Portland in 1784. In 1786 it was sold as part of her 'Museum of Antiquities' to the third Duke of Portland. It was at this point that the vase was borrowed by Josiah Wedgwood with the aim of copying it, prompted by John Flaxman. Josiah, his son Josiah II, Henry Webber and William Hackwood, worked for four years on the reproduction, overcoming huge technical problems to produce the first successful vase in 1790. It continued to be reproduced in jasper ware widely into the 19th and 20th centuries.