Wedgwood's pear-shape, flat-rim ewer form, executed here in dark blue jasper dip was employed with a number of different relief patterns, but is especially associated with these putti representing the four seasons.

Well-rounded relief figures of winged boys are captured in poses that represent their time of year. Spring carries a bird and its nest of newly-laid eggs. Summer bears a flowering garland. Autumn appears with a sheaf of wheat over his shoulder, his scythe in his other hand. Chilly winter warms himself at a classical brazier.

Beneath the boys is a border of classical "trophies," still life groups of symbolic objects. The handle--slightly angled on all these ewers to accommodate a finger comfortably--is adorned with a grape border and terminated with a bearded mask. A single band of laurel finishes the flat rim.

Symbolic representations of the seasons represent a motif that remained popular from classical times until at least the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Traditionally, they relate to the cycles of nature or agriculture. One wonders how a more modern notion of the seasons might be represented. Putti at a spring break beach party? Playing baseball? Trudging back to school, their wings drooping dejectedly? Putti shopping for the holidays?