Wedgwood Jasper Cupids for Valentines Day

Cupid Kneeling

On theme of Vintage for Valentines day- I have just noticed how often Wedgwood used Cupid as a motif applied to Wedgwoods jasper ware. There are examples of Cupid in all sorts of poses including  Cupid Kneeling, Cupid asleep  and Cupid pretending to be oracle to name just a few.

So just who was Cupid? According to Wiki :

In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido) is the god of erotic love and beauty. He is also known by another one of his Latin names, Amor (cognate with Kama).In popular culture Cupid is frequently shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine’s Day. The more common holiday representation of Cupid is a putto with a bow and arrow. Sometimes the arrow will have a heart for its tip. Cupid is most often seen either nude or diapered. Cupid is sometimes blindfolded, as in the expression “love is blind. Modern reinterpretations of the Cupid character may leave off traditional details of the character, but the character’s main purpose generally remains to help or make people fall in love or possibly engage in physical intimacy.

The picture above shows a silver ring set with a Wedgwood jasper Cameo featuring Cupid Kneeling – antiquesavenue antique shop offers a range of Wedgwood cupids set into jewellery and into trinket trays