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Two-handled vase: C.55-2023

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Two-handled vase

Maker(s)

Pottery: William De Morgan & Co.
Painter: Porter, Edward

Entities

Categories

Description

Earthenware, washed with white slip, and painted underglaze.

Urn shaped vase with two handles on the shoulder and everted neck, slip-coated and painted in blue, turquoise, two shades of green, and shades of purple underglaze. On the body, birds amongs sprays of flowers and foliage on a white ground; on the neck, turquoise triangles and green squiggles; interior of neck and handles turquoise, the latter with a longitudinal blue wavy line. Underside flat and unglazed.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Ian and Rita Smythe, 2023

Measurements and weight

Height: 26 cm
Width: 16.5 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Merton Abbey ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Late#
Victoria I
Circa 1882 CE - 1888 CE

Note

William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917), now widely regarded as the most important ceramicist of the Arts & Crafts movement, also worked in stained glass and became a successful novelist. The son of a non-conformist mathematics professor, he became a close friend of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones and married the Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn Pickering (1855-1919), in 1887. As a ceramicist, De Morgan was primarily a designer/decorator and chemist, working on bought-in blanks or pots thrown to his design. He experimented widely with techniques and glazes, re-discovering methods for making and applying lustres and the colours of Persian and Iznik pottery and using them for a range of complex fantasy designs featuring ships, birds, flora and animals. De Morgan was based at Merton Abbey (next door to Morris’s factory) from 1882-8.

School or Style

Arts and Crafts (movement)

Components of the work

Decoration composed of underglaze colours glaze
Base Diameter 7 cm
Visible Surfaces

Materials used in production

Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Throwing

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: around edge of oval

  • Text: W DE MORGAN/MERTON ABBEY
  • Location: Inderside of base
  • Method of creation: Impressed
  • Type: Factory mark

Inscription present: E is slightly above the P

  • Text: E P
  • Location: In middle of base
  • Method of creation: Painted in black
  • Type: Painter's mark

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.55-2023
Primary reference Number: 226594
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 12 March 2019 Updated: Tuesday 16 January 2024 Last processed: Tuesday 16 January 2024

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Two-handled vase" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/226594 Accessed: 2024-12-22 06:10:30

Citation for Wikipedia

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/226594 |title=Two-handled vase |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-22 06:10:30|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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