Electroformed copper and electrogilt, designed and made under the direction of Alexander Parkes for Elkington, Mason & Co., Birmingham, c.1845

Small, oval, ornamental vase on Gothic-revival, 4-lobed foot with acanthus leaves cradling the bottom of the vase and a naturalistic, flared-leaf opening at the top. The vase has two handles in the form of stylised leaves and down the body has highly polished vertical bands contrasting with a stippled surface and grapes, leaves and vines are draped over the shoulders.

On Loan from the Science Museum Group

This vase, created under the direction of the chemical scientist, Alexander Parkes (1813-1890), is a very early example of electroforming and electrogilding and historicallly sits at the very beginnings of the electrical revolution. Electroforming, electrogilding and electroplating (the coating of other substances in metals using an electrical current) were the products of a century or more of experiments in the use of electricity. The technology was first developed commercially in Birmingham by Elkington & Co. (at the time, Elkington, Mason & Co.) and the art and luxury goods they designed, made and sold became the first material products of electricity developed almost simultaneously with the beginnings of the electric telegraph.

To make this object, a series of moulds for body, handles and foot taken from a wax model were immersed in a tank of copper sulphate on a positive electrical charge. When the current was switched on, the copper separated itself from the solution and deposited itself into the moulds. When enough copper was deposited to make the individual pieces strong enough to be released from the moulds, the moulds and their deposit were brought out of the tank. The copper 'electroforms' were then separated, trimmed and assembled. The complete copper vase was then immersed in a separate tank of gold in solution with potassium cyanide and through the same process a very thin coating of gold was applied to the outside surface. 'Unfinished' areas of electroformed objects, such as the base of this vase, often have a surface of rough nodules where the metal deposits have been transferred into an open-faced moulds particle by particle. This electrical form of casting was a lot more accurate than traditional casting where molten metals are poured into moulds, and the multiple copies it could create of the same thing could be almost identical.

The technology that produced the vase caused a sensation at the Great Exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851 and visitors flocked to see this new alchemy in action. This vase was one of a small number of similar vases shown at the exhibition during demonstrations of the technology. It had first been shown in public at the Birmingham Exposition of Arts and Manufactures in 1849 where it was illustrated in print form alongside other antique and modern designs (see V&A Archive of Art and Design AAD/2003/4/2).

The vase, in keeping with other British products of the period shows a variety of historcal influences combined onto a new design. The four-lobed foot was common on 15th-century chalices and cups; the oval body of the vase is a slightly altered classical shape; the flared lip of the vase mimics naturalistic leaf designs popular during the mid eighteenth century; the vines and grapes are a direct inheritance from the Regency period in Britain of the early nineteenth century. A mish-mash of styles on individual objects was a widely-held criticism of British designs at the Great Exhibition where writers mocked British taste but championed innovative, British technology. In this sense, this vase embodies both the state of design and technology in Britain at the time of the Great Exhibition.

The first Director of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), Henry Cole, recognised the capabilities of electoforming technology for making extremely accurate reproductions for improving British design and it was soon after seeing it demonstrated, both at the exhibition and at Elkington's Birmingham factory, that he introduced a programme with Elkington for providing 'electrotype' copies of both historic and contemporary works of art that were used as models for students in design schools all over Britain. They were also sold internationally and can be seen today in many museums based on the South Kensington model. You may also see them in theatre, film and television where they are still used a props after being sold off when design schools stopped using them in the early twentieth century.

Although this vase embodies both the criticisms and praise levelled at British art production, its mixture of designs was quite deliberate in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology. Alexander Parkes, under whose eye the vase was made, was Elkington's chief scientist and head of their casting department. His primary focus early in his time with Elkington was in developing more intricate and flexible mould-making materials to make accurate impressions of the elaborate and complex designs that were so popular at the time. He used compositions of both Caoutchouc (India-rubber) and gutta percha (a tree-resin imported from Malaysia) as they were more flexible than traditional plaster for removing a mould with complex undercut ornament. Plaster moulds had to be broken in order to create undercut ornament and were frequently made up of dozens of small parts that had to be held together. Parkes patented methods of mould making with gutta percha and caoutchouc in 1846, around the time this vase was made.

Parkes' elastic moulds combined with the minute, molecular deposition of metals (for which he took out many patents in the 1830s and 40s) meant almost any complex form could be produced more easily in less complex moulds and could be reproduced far more accurately in higher numbers. Sculpture, silverware and decorated household goods reproduced this way served an antiquarian market keen on reproductions of artworks and artifacts of artistic or archaeological interest. Parkes's experiments with mould-making and with creating synthetic alternatives to ivory led him in 1856 (after he had left Elkington & Co) to develop a material he called Parkesine (nitrocellulose), the world's first thermoplastic for which, at the London International Exhibition of 1862 he was awared a bronze medal for 'excellence of product'.

This vase is therefore a material expression of the very beginnings of a combination of the electrical revolution, the national drive for art and social reform of the mid-nineteenth century and the development of plastics. Deconstruct a mobile phone or a laptop and much of the technology used to produce them, from the electroformed microchips and the pure copper wire in the cabling to the plastic casing it is housed in, can trace its roots to developments by Parkes in Elkington's factory in the 1840s that led to the production of this prototype vase.

The vase also embodies the separation during the second half of the nineteenth century of science and art as academic disciplines. When the Science Museum and the V&A became two separate institutions, the vase was located in the Science Museum collections as an example of scientific and industrial innovation. It is on show at the V&A, the national museum of the history of art, design and performance, as an expression of the time when art, technology and industry were inseparable as the basic building blocks of design reform.

This vase was created by the innovative giants of nineteenth-century art-metal manufacturers, Elkington & Co. under the direction of their chief scientist, Alexander Parkes (1813-1890). It is a very early example of electroforming and electrogilding. It was formed in a mould in copper that was later coated in gold. Both processes involved depositing metals from solution into a mould or onto the object using an electrical current. Decorative and luxury household objects like electroplated or electrogilded vases, cups, teasets and cutlery were the first commercial products of the electrical revolution.

The vase, in keeping with other British products of the period shows a variety of historcal influences combined onto a new design. The four-lobed foot was common on 15th-century chalices and cups; the oval body of the vase is a slightly altered classical shape; the flared lip of the vase mimics naturalistic leaf designs popular during the mid eighteenth century; the vines and grapes are a direct inheritance from the Regency period in Britain of the early nineteenth century. A mish-mash of styles on individual objects was a widely-held criticism of British designs at the Great Exhibition where writers mocked British taste but championed innovative, British technology. In this sense, this vase embodies both the state of design and technology in Britain at the time of the Great Exhibition.

LOAN:SCIENCE MUSEUM.1