From:Williamson Art Gallery and Museum

Name/TitleDella Robbia Vase

About this objectA Della Robbia earthenware Algerian vase. It has a lead glaze, and the sgraffito decoration on a yellow background shows two female portraits, green flowers and stems that interweave around the piece.

Emily Margaret Wood was a ceramicist, journalist and naturalist. She spent her childhood in India, which inspired her love for botany, which she continued in her prolific work for the Liverpool Naturalists Field Club, of which she became secretary. She started at the pottery in the Architect's Department, but also dealt in domestic wares and vases. She is best known for her extensive collection of botanical illustrations and was a talented watercolourist. She supported her elderly mother after her parents' separation, which meant taking multiple jobs as a journalist, potter, colourist and nature study teacher. This led to an untimely death in 1907 from exhaustion after a bout of enterocolitis.

This piece demonstrates her love for Art Nouveau, not only in the stylised depiction of the flowers on the neck of the vase, but also in the female portraits, as they are reminiscent of the style of Alphonse Mucha.

MakerDella Robbia Pottery (active 1894-1906)

Maker Rolemanufacturer

MakerWood, Emily Margaret (1865-1907)

Maker Rolepainter and designer

Date Madec.1894-1906

Period19th century

Medium and Materialsearthenware

Place MadeBirkenhead, Merseyside

Style and IconographyArts and Crafts

Style and IconographyArt Nouveau

Inscription and Marksmaker's mark - Della Robbia ship with initials
D R
Method: inscribed
Position: base

Techniqueearthenware

Measurementsheight: 36cm, width: 19cm

Subject and Association Keywordsflower

Subject and Association Keywordsportrait

Subject and Association KeywordsAlphonse Mucha

Object Typevase

Object numberBIKGM.5781

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved