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Vase
Capes, Mary - Enlarge image
Vase
- Place of origin:
Lambeth, England (made)
- Date:
1879 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Capes, Mary (decorator)
Doulton Ceramic Factory (maker) - Materials and Techniques:
Earthenware, painted
- Credit Line:
Transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street
- Museum number:
3805-1901
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125f, case 1
Object Type
This vase, although functional, was made mainly for show. The overall decoration, in a comparatively restrained 'art' style, was made to appeal to the widest possible, yet fashion-conscious, home-owning market.
Design & Designing
The production of earthenware with painted pictorial decoration was developed at the Lambeth factory of Doulton & Co. around 1872. Five years earlier in the international exhibition, Paris, similar wares by the French potter Joseph-Théodore Deck (1823-1891) and Wedgwood wares painted by Emile Lessore had been exhibited, and in 1871 Minton's had opened their Art Pottery studio, specialising in painted wares, in Kensington Gore, London. Doulton's decided to follow this new fashion with the production of 'Lambeth faience'.
People
Mary Capes was one of the many decorating artists who worked for the studio production. Between about 1876 and 1883 she was a faience designer and painter and she also developed a technique for painting in enamel colours on stoneware.

