Pottery, earthenware, glazed, Bombay School of Art, c. 1880

The vase has a pair of handles which are attached to the long wide tubular neck and the slanting shoulders of the main body of the vase.the mouth has a flanged rim just below its rim. It is decorated with flowering plant designs in a blueish grey on a dark grey ground.

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 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 Schools 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. This particular shape was described as 'Egyptian' in the Wonderland Art Register and it was in great demand at international exhibitions in the 1880s and 1890s 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

This vase was made at the Bombay School of Art in about 1880. Its glazed wares 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

IS.2832-1883