The model for Wedgwood’s Portland vase is the antique cameo glass vase now in the British Museum, London. The vase was produced in Rome (or Alexandria) during the first century BC and is named after the Duchess of Portland, who owned it briefly during the eighteenth century. Josiah Wedgwood was lent the vase in 1786, and made successful copies of it from 1789. It was produced first in blue-black jasper and subsequently in blue jasper, both stoneware bodies invented by Wedgwood.
This work is currently on display on Level 2 at NGV International.