Two handled vase: C.33-2023

Titles

Two handled vase

Maker(s)

Pottery: Della Robbia Pottery
Decorator: Fogo, John

Entities

• Two-handled vase
• vase

Categories

• Earthenware
• Art Pottery

Description

Thrown terracotta, turned, slip coated and decorated with sgraffito, underglaze colours and clear lead glaze.

Small bulbous vase with narrow base, narrow everted neck and two loop handles laid onto the shoulder. Thrown from red clay, slip-coated and decorated with sgraffito and coloured glazes, with a leaf/seed-pod design in brown-black and cream, tinged with pink, yellow and aqueous green. The same green on handles and neck. Underside slip-coated and clear glazed with a slightly raised foot-rim.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Ian and Rita Smythe, 2023

Place(s) associated

• Birkenhead ⪼ Cheshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2023) by Smythe, Ian and Rita

Dating

19th Century, Late#
1901 CE - 1905 CE

Note

The Della Robbia Pottery, founded by Harold Rathbone and Conrad Dressler. From 1894 until closure in 1906 it produced a range of decorative ceramics in Art Nouveau style and influenced by 15th and 16th century Italian ceramics. Following the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, pieces were hand thrown and decorated and individual decorators encouraged to mark their work. Typically, designs were set out in sgraffito over white slip and coloured with special fluid colours, formed from pigments mixed with water and gum arabic, which blended with the glaze to give exceptionally bright hues. John Fogo (1885-1980) worked at Della Robbia from 1901-5, leaving to become a marine engineer at Laird’s shipyard.