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Tall vase: C.30-2023

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Tall vase

Maker(s)

Pottery: Della Robbia Pottery
Designer: Collis, Charles
Sgaffito artist: E LL
Decorator: Russell, Gertrude

Entities

Categories

Description

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

Red earthenware vase of elegant bulbous shape tapering to tall narrow neck, joined by a rounded bulge. Decorated with cream slip and a flowing sgraffito design of leaves and dangling flowers, coloured with ochre, green and turquoise on a manganese brown ground and clear glazed. Underside slip-coated and glazed within a slightly raised foot-rim.

Notes

History note: Lent by Rita Smythe, 2018

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Ian and Rita Smythe, 2023

Measurements and weight

Height: 38 cm
Width: 17 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Birkenhead ⪼ Cheshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

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

Dating

Production date: circa AD 1904

Note

Charles Collis (1878-1918 joined Della Robbia circa 1895, then gained experience at Doulton Burslem, and elsewhere. He returned in 1902 and again in 1905. Collis’s designs were used by others and here the sgaffito decoration seems to be by ‘ELL’ (as yet unidentified), who worked at the pottery c.1900-1904, and painting by Gertrude Russell, who joined in late 1903.

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.

Materials used in production

Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Throwing : Thrown, slip coated, sgraffito and coloured glazes.
Painting

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: D simple ship outline R
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Factory mark

Inscription present: in a circle

  • Text: C
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Decorator's mark
  • Text: 87
  • Location: Inderside of base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Design number
  • Text: GR
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Painted in blue
  • Type: Decorator's mark
  • Text: E LL
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Incised
  • Type: Decorator's mark
  • Text: 16/0’1976
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Circular paper label handwritten in blue ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.30-2023
Primary reference Number: 239666
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 26 November 2019 Updated: Wednesday 30 August 2023 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

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) "Tall vase" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/239666 Accessed: 2024-11-05 07:52:33

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/239666 |title=Tall vase |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-05 07:52:33|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-239666

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