Vase
Della Robbia Pottery
Category
Ceramics
Date
1901 - 1905
Materials
earthenware
Measurements
275 mm (H)105 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Birkenhead
Order this imageCollection
Standen House and Garden, West Sussex
NT 1213663
Summary
Vase, ‘Large Dutch Vase’ shape, glazed earthenware, low bulbous body, foot rim, narrow flaring neck with vertical rim, made by the Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead, 1901-5; decorated over the body with a sgraffito pattern consisting of scrolling palmettes above a border of stiff leaves, the decoration by Elizabeth (Liz) Wilkins and John Fogo after a design by Charles Collis, turquoise, green, brown and yellow coloured glazes.
Full description
This vase was coloured by Elizabeth (known as Liz or Lizzie) Wilkins and incised by John Fogo, after a design by Charles Collis. Wilkins worked at the Della Robbia Pottery in her home town of Birkenhead, Merseyside. She worked primarily as a sgraffito artist, decorating pots with incised decoration, and as a ceramic colourist, painting designs in coloured enamels and glazes. Wilkins was fifteen when she joined the pottery shortly after it opened in 1894 and worked there for ten years. Among her most important work were the panels she painted for a fountain for the Savoy Hotel, which was commissioned from Della Robbia and worked on by a number of its artists. John Fogo was at Della Robbia between 1901-5. Despite his talent being recognised and encouraged by the Pottery’s founder, Harold Rathbone, Fogo left to begin work at the shipyards in Birkenhead, becoming a marine engineer. Charles Collis worked as a ceramic designer at Della Robbia, Doulton & Co in Burslem, Staffordshire and at William Ault’s Pottery in Swadlincote, among others over the course of his long career. The Della Robbia Pottery was a short lived operation, in business from 1894 to 1906. It took its name and inspiration from the maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) masterpieces of Italian Renaissance sculptor Luca della Robbia (c.1400–82) as well as the Pre-Raphaelite art movement in Britain. The studio was established according to Arts and Crafts principles, aspiring to use local labour and materials, and to create works entirely by hand. It employed many women as designers and decorators.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of base: JF 39 (the monogram intertwined for John Fogo) Underside of base: .LW. (painted over glaze in black, for Liz Wilkins) Underside of base: D [boat] R (for Della Robbia)
Makers and roles
Della Robbia Pottery , manufacturer Elizabeth 'Liz' Wilkins (b. c.1878), decorator Charles Collis (1837 - 1896), designer John Fogo (d.1980), decorator
References
Hyland 2013: Peter Hyland, The Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead, 1894-1906, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club 2013, See Appendix A