Hermann August Kaehler (1846-1917) began his apprenticeship at the family pottery in 1867, after studying in Berlin. Founded by his father Joachim Christian Kaehler in 1839 at Naestved, South Zealand the pottery specialised in the manufacture of earthenware stoves. H.A.Kaehler inherited the company from his father in 1872 and expanded into the production of larger architectural ceramics. In the late 1880s he began experimenting with lustred glazes which were, by then, a fashionable interest in Europe as well as in Britain. The pottery became best known for these special glazes, with their silvered, reddened colouring often with a 'crackled' surface - as in this vase and the three others in the group. In 1894, when the group was purchased from him by the V&A (then still the South Kensington Museum) Kaehler was staying in London, giving his address as Montague Place, Russell Square. It is tempting to speculate that he was visiting museums in the capital, especially the nearby British Museum. In 1900 he won a silver medal in the international exhibition, Paris. His sons continued making lustred wares into the 1920s.