‘Anglo Persian’ design vase: C.50-2023

Titles

‘Anglo Persian’ design vase

Maker(s)

Factory: Burmantofts Pottery
Leeds Fireclay Company

Entities

• Vase

Categories

• Lead-glazed earthenware
• Art Pottery

Description

Buff earthenware decorated in blues, greens and pink with Anglo-Persian design.

Small bulbous vase with tall slender neck which has bulging ridge one third of the way up. Decorated in the style and colours of Persian pottery with stylised foliate ornamentation including three large turquoise flowers with blue centres, and on the neck with stylised sun rays. Several coloured stripes around the neck. The underside flat, undecorated and within a narrow foot-rim.

Notes

History note: Lent by Rita Smythe

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Ian and Rita Smythe, 2023

Place(s) associated

• Leeds (Yorks.) ⪼ Yorkshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

19th Century, Late-20th Century, Early#
1887 CE - 1904 CE

Note

Burmantofts faience used bright metallic-compound glazes over high fired buff earthenware. Later, more ambitious glazes, sgraffito decoration and ornate designs were adopted. Many workers came from the Linthorpe Pottery, which closed in 1889, often producing similar styles. Victor Kremer and B.Sicard, two French ceramicists trained by Palissy revivalists, joined c.1881 and introduced applied decorations including insects and reptiles. Leonard King decorated much of the Anglo Persian wares, launched 1887, which were hand-painted over white slip and low-fired; and bulbous vases with long slender necks, like these, were popular.

Burmantofts pottery comes from Burmantofts, Leeds. James Holroyd, who inherited Wilcock and Co. in 1879, introduced ‘architectural faience' alongside existing brick and pipe products, and then developed the range to include vases, jardinieres and similar products. Renamed the Burmantofts Company in 1888, the name continued on ornamental wares after merger into the Leeds Fireclay Company the following year. The decorated products sold well into the early 1900s, and production of architectural wares continued until 1957.

School or Style

Art Nouveau