Vase, ca.1880, Bombay School of Art, Bombay.

The vase has a swelling body on a foot ring and sloping shoulders which rise to diminishing neck onto which are attached four handles. These loop down onto the top of the shoulders. The decoration on this vase is slip-painted in colours of green, white, orange and grey on a black ground under a lead glaze. It reflects the Bombay School of Art's interest in the frescoes in the rock-cut caves at Ajanta in the western ghats.The upper register of the body is decorated with a broad scroll of flowers band of curving motifs runs round the middle above a lower tier of panels of similar flowers separated by vertical bands of varying abstract motifs. Further flowering stems are set within framed outlines round the neck and a chevron pattern ornaments the handles.

Bequeathed by Mrs. Grace S. Anderson in memory of her husband John Anderson, M. D., C. E. O., F. R. S

The Bombay School of Art's ceramic productions were traded under the name of Wonderland Art Pottery under the direction of George Wilkins Terry, who had been appointed as its first drawing master in 1857. The pottery flourished from the mid 1870s until about 1890, but limped on after Terry's retirement at that time into the the early years of the 20th century. Early wares were influenced by those manufactured in Sind as Terry set up his workshop with a Sindhi craftsman called Nur Muhammad. Soon, however, much of the decoration came to be influenced by the cave paintings at Ajanta, which had been discovered earlier in the century, and were copied by the School's students over a period lasting from 1872-1885, elements of which were adapted and used to decorate the ceramics in an attempt to encourage traditions of Indian art rather than European ones. Liberty imported some wares to sell in its Regent Street shop in London; see Stronge, Susan,'Wonderland', Ceramics: The International Journal of Ceramics and Glass, London, issue V, August 1987, pp. 48-53.

made at the Bombay School of Art

The vase was made at the Bombay School of Art, whose ceramic productions were traded under the name of Wonderland Art Pottery under the direction of George Wilkins Terry, who had been appointed as its first drawing master in 1857. The pottery flourished from the mid 1870s until about 1890, but limped on after Terry's retirement at that time into the early years of the 20th century. Early wares were influenced by those manufactured in Sind as Terry set up his workshop with a Sindhi craftsman called Nur Muhammad. Soon, however, much of the decoration came to be influenced by the cave paintings at Ajanta, and were copied by the Schools students over a period lasting from 1872-1885. The ceramic students also adapted Ajanta motifs, as here, in an attempt by the School to encourage traditions of Indian art rather than European ones. Liberty imported some of the Wonderland wares to sell in its Regent Street shop in London

IM.41-1917