Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 143, The Timothy Sainsbury Gallery

Martin Ware

Vase
1901 (dated)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

If Martin-ware [… has] not the transparency of porcelain nor the elaborately and costly ornamentation of Sèvres [it is] pure and honest art work.

This is how the art critic Cosmo Monkhouse described the output of the Martin Brothers' studio in The Magazine of Art in 1882. Eccentric founder Robert Wallace Martin and his siblings Charles, Walter and Edwin epitomized the energy and experimentation of the nineteenth-century art pottery movement. They regarded pottery as a means of artistic expression, rather than a product of industrial manufacture, and were particularly inspired by the rustic flora and fauna forms of the sixteenth-century potter Bernard Palissy as well as Japanese arts.

This vase is typical of the Martin Brothers' later work and shows the influence of the emerging Art Nouveau style, inspired by natural forms such as seeds and plants.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMartin Ware (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Salt-glazed stoneware with painted decoration
Brief description
Squat 'Martin Ware' vase, salt-glazed stoneware with blue and brown spotted glaze, made by Martin Bros., Southall, dated 1901
Physical description
Small vase, flattened and bulbous. Stoneware. Blue 'net' over brown glaze forming irregular spot pattern.
Dimensions
  • Height: 5.7cm
  • Width: 11.1cm
Marks and inscriptions
'12-1901 / Martin Bros / London & Southall' (Maker's mark incised on base)
Gallery label
Vase 'Martin Ware' made by the Martin Bros., Southall, Middlesex, England, dated 1901 Mark: 'Martin Bros London & Southall 12-1901', incised Salt-glazed stoneware with painted decoration C.490-1919 The 2nd Lieutenant Francis Bedford Marsh (1914-1918) War Memorial Gift(23/05/2008)
Credit line
The 2nd Lieutenant Francis Bedford Marsh 1914-1918 War Memorial Gift
Summary
If Martin-ware [… has] not the transparency of porcelain nor the elaborately and costly ornamentation of Sèvres [it is] pure and honest art work.

This is how the art critic Cosmo Monkhouse described the output of the Martin Brothers' studio in The Magazine of Art in 1882. Eccentric founder Robert Wallace Martin and his siblings Charles, Walter and Edwin epitomized the energy and experimentation of the nineteenth-century art pottery movement. They regarded pottery as a means of artistic expression, rather than a product of industrial manufacture, and were particularly inspired by the rustic flora and fauna forms of the sixteenth-century potter Bernard Palissy as well as Japanese arts.

This vase is typical of the Martin Brothers' later work and shows the influence of the emerging Art Nouveau style, inspired by natural forms such as seeds and plants.
Collection
Accession number
C.490-1919

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Record createdMarch 31, 2008
Record URL
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