Product Description
Christopher Dresser / Linthorpe Art Pottery Rare Aesthetic Movement “Gourd” Vase 1879-1882
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) UK
LINTHORPE ART POTTERY, Middlesbrough
HENRY TOOTH Artistic Manager Linthorpe (1842-1918) UK
“Gourd Vase” 1879-1882
Glazed Earthenware
***Extremely rare Dresser / Linthorpe model.
Marked: LINTHORPE, Chr. Dresser (facsimile signature) HT, no. 326
Illustrated: Christopher Dresser: Truth, Beauty, Power exh. cat. (New York: Historical Design, 1998) p.75; illustrated in two drawings for gourd vases in Dresser’s 1881 design and account book under heading “Aug. 29, 1881. Sent to J. Harrison Esq. 41 Designs for Linthorpe.”
H: 7 3/4″
The contrasts in Dresser’s designs for different materials showed how his approach to design was also shaped by the properties and nature of a material. In 1879 Dresser was appointed art director at the newly established Linthorpe pottery, near Middlesbrough. Founded by John Harrison, a local businessman, the pottery’s aim was to use local clay to provide jobs for local men. Dresser’s design for the moulds for the pottery were inspired by a wide range of cultures from Japan, Peru, Mexico, Morocco and Ancient British forms. These very striking pieces, with the metal oxides in the complex and innovative glazes providing the only decoration. All of his designs were impressed with a facsimile signature. When Linthorpe closed in 1889, its moulds were acquired by a rival, Ault Pottery in Derbyshire. In 1893, Dresser signed a contract with Ault for new designs specifying that each pot should be marked with his facsimile signature.
Christopher Dresser / Linthorpe Art Pottery Rare Aesthetic Movement “Gourd” Vase 1879-1882
CHRISTIAN THOMSEN (1860-1921) Denmark
ROYAL COPENHAGEN
“Frog and Dragonfly” vase 1901
Glazed porcelain with a frog in 3-D sculptural relief looking at a dragonfly seated on a calla lily leaf looking up at the blossom.
Form number 280
Marks: ROYAL COPENHAGEN, CROWN, 465/250, 3 wavy lines (Royal Copenhagen) insignia, inscribed A. 250
For more information see: Musterbuch KPF, um 1930, Illustration number 204; Porzellan, Kunst und Design 1889 bis 1939, vom Jugendstil zum Funktionalismus (Berlin: Bröhan-Museum, 1993) p. 467, ill. 435; Sammlung Bröhan: Kunsthandwerk 2, Metall, Porzellan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1977), pp. 222-285.
H: 9″ x Dia: 3 1/2″
Christian Thomsen was employed at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory (Royal Copenhagen) in 1898, and was employed there until his death in 1921. Thomsen is said to have had a huge impact on Royal Copenhagen’s success throughout the 20th century. A large part of the recognition by the Royal Porcelain Factory has enjoyed over the years, they can thank Christian Thomsen for. He produced more than 100 different figurines, especially he had a fondness for agricultural characters, children figurines, figurines inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, fauns and trolls, and not least charming animals and bird figures.
ROBERT SCHELLIN (1910 – 1985) USA
“Calligraphy” Floor Vase 1958
Hand thrown earthenware with a light and dark brown glaze with a stylized abstract calligraphic motif encircling the body
Marks: various marks and estate stamps Robert Schellin, Made in 1958, P88, C118 (paper labels)
For more information see: Schellin, A Retrospective (Milwaukee: School of Fine Arts, The University of Wisconsin, 1975); Who Was Who in American Art, (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985), p. 547.
H: 23 1/2″ x Dia: 7″
Price: $9,000
Robert Schellin’s life as an artist was consistent, productive, and based on firm philosophical foundations. Regarding his own progress, he had always been aware, as a young art student and later as a mature artist, that deliberately narrowing the focus of his interests to assure a more constant public notice would run the risk of his becoming highly expert, but sterile in expression. From the beginning of art student days Schellin moved from very satisfying periods of drawing and painting to work in three-dimensional
Media, frequently in the medium of ceramics.
Schellin left the W.P.A. in 1937 to teach at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. After a year he moved to East Orange, New Jersey, supervising art in the public schools. It was during this stay in the New York metropolitan area that he studied with Hans Hoffmann at his Eighth Street School and witnessed at first hand the changing art scene and the growing commercialism of the artists market. Robert Schellin later returned back to Milwaukee rejoining the faculty of the University of Wisconsin (UWM). His works have been exhibited for many years in Wisconsin and national shows including the Wisconsin State Fair; the Art Institute of Chicago, 1944; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1946; and the Milwaukee Art Institute numerous times between 1939-1960. He was included in the USIA European Traveling exhibition 1959-61.