Vase

Chelsea Keramic Art Works|Hugh C. Robertson

ca. 1877–84 · Earthenware · The American Wing

The Chelsea Keramic Art Works was the first American ceramics firm to designate itself an "art pottery." It was founded in Chelsea, Massachusetts, by members of the Robertson family, all of whom had honed their skills in the ceramics industry in Britain before coming to this country. This vase features a fully modeled wildflower spray displayed over the body of the piece. Such naturalistically rendered and asymmetrically arranged plant sprays in relief conformed to the decorative taste of the Aesthetic Movement in the late 1870s and 1880s (see also 2018.294.21; 2018.294.29). The hand-hammered surface effect is Japanese in inspiration. This vase is from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of American art pottery donated to the Metropolitan Museum in 2017 and 2018. The works in the collection date from the mid-1870s through the 1950s. Together they comprise one of the most comprehensive and important assemblages of this material known.

Artist

Chelsea Keramic Art Works|Hugh C. Robertson

Date

ca. 1877–84

Medium

Earthenware

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Robert A. Ellison Jr., 2018