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Details / Information for Vase

Vase

1889

Walter Crane

(British, 1845–1915)

Maw & Co.

(British (modern), 1850–1969)
Culture
Britain
Medium
Earthenware
Measurements
22.4 x 22.7 cm (8 13/16 x 8 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Katharine Lee Reid 2017.208
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
221 19th Century Decorative Arts
Print
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Did You Know?

The red glaze on this vase resembles the color of oxblood.

Description

Walter Crane was one of the leading figures of the British Arts and Crafts movement. His work helped establish a renewed interest in Renaissance ceramics and the importance of illustration in decorative ceramics. He collaborated with several major manufacturers of decorative furnishings including Maw & Co., an important manufacturer of aesthetic period tiles and other decorative ceramics. This vase is one of a series of vases that Crane designed for Maw around 1889 when they first appear listed in the catalogue of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in London of that year, described along with a series of tiles that Crane also designed for Maw. Its brilliant ruby-red luster surface is a hallmark of Maw’s work featuring Crane’s lyrical designs while referencing earlier 15th- and 16th-century Spanish lusterware.
A wide, rounded ceramic vessel features a narrow neck and flared rim, decorated with deep red patterns over a cream-colored surface. Centered on the body, a nude woman with light skin tone reclines diagonally, her head toward our right and knees toward our left. Her long hair flows back into intricate, swirling vine and leaf designs that fill the surrounding background and cover the vessel's neck and rim.

Vase

1889

Walter Crane, Maw & Co.

(British, 1845–1915), (British (modern), 1850–1969)
Britain

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