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Vase

Decorative Arts and Design

James Callowhill was a highly skilled china decorator at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Company in England before he immigrated to the United States. Here he worked both independently and as a freelance decorator for several of the most important potteries, helping to raise the standard of craftsmanship in the ceramics industry in this country.

The plaque is one of a set of three that he made independently and exhibited to great acclaim in 1888. The vase was designed by Edward Lycett, a fellow English china painter also of great renown. Callowhill decorated and signed it as a free-lance artist at the Faience Manufacturing Company here in Brooklyn.
MEDIUM Glazed earthenware
  • Place Manufactured: Brooklyn, New York, United States
  • DATES ca. 1886–1890
    DIMENSIONS 11 x 7 1/2 in. (27.9 x 19.1 cm)
    MARKINGS On bottom: Company logo transfer printed in green; impressed "658"; painted in purple "117"; incised "2/17/46"
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2014.23
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Jay and Emma Lewis
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Round cream-colored body raised on gilt foot ring with tall upwardly flared neck set on gilt annular ring with opposed gilt reticulated spikey transitional elements at join of neck and body. Neck gilt with molded irregular surface decorated with evenly spaced small turquoise jewels. Cream body with stippled gold ground and over-all asymmetrical water lilies, leaves, and other flowers in green and dark red and elaborate flat and raised gilding in the Japanese taste.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
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