On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Tureen and Cover

ca. 1900 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
This tureen and cover, in inexpensive earthenware and decorated with an Art Nouveau pattern, made tableware in fashionable styles available to the widest possible market.

Design & Designing
The Art Nouveau pattern, fashionable around 1900, superimposed on this tureen appears somewhat incompatible with the earlier designed shape. Patterning of this type, which was fully developed on the continent by the early 1890s, was rapidly taken up by manufacturers in all materials keen to grasp a commercial opportunity. The highly sophisticated, urban Art Nouveau style was only briefly adopted in Britain. Here, the more countrified and traditional Arts and Crafts style had already taken hold.

Makers
Keeling & Co., which made this tureen, was the last owner of a company which had a very chequered history from 1826 to 1886. The longest continuous period of ownership in the 19th century was under the founding family of Mayer, including the three Mayer brothers who went into partnership in 1836 at Dale Hall Works, Fenton, Staffordshire. They and their successors' production was largely of useful wares in ironstone and earthenware. These wares were often lavishly ornamented with relief modelling, colour printing, painting or gilding. The company's fortunes fluctuated from the mid-1850s onwards. By the mid-1870s, as Bates, Elliott, Walker & Co., it was making jasperware (a fine-grained, hard, slightly translucent stoneware) using 18th-century moulds; terracotta figures; and sanitary, pharmaceutical and garden wares. Keeling & Co. took over in 1886 and continued production until 1936.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Tureen
  • Cover
Materials and techniques
Earthenware, with stencilled and painted decoration
Brief description
Vegetable tureen and cover made by Keeling & Co, ca. 1900; England.
Physical description
Blue Art Nouveau style decoration.
Dimensions
  • Height: 13cm
  • Width: 28.6cm
  • Depth: 17.8cm
Dimensions checked: Measured; 09/07/2000 by ET
Gallery label
(27/03/2003)
British Galleries:
The standard shape of this tureen, commonly sold at the time, was updated with a pattern in the fashionable Art Nouveau style.
Object history
Manufactured by Keeling and Co., Burslem, Staffordshire
Summary
Object Type
This tureen and cover, in inexpensive earthenware and decorated with an Art Nouveau pattern, made tableware in fashionable styles available to the widest possible market.

Design & Designing
The Art Nouveau pattern, fashionable around 1900, superimposed on this tureen appears somewhat incompatible with the earlier designed shape. Patterning of this type, which was fully developed on the continent by the early 1890s, was rapidly taken up by manufacturers in all materials keen to grasp a commercial opportunity. The highly sophisticated, urban Art Nouveau style was only briefly adopted in Britain. Here, the more countrified and traditional Arts and Crafts style had already taken hold.

Makers
Keeling & Co., which made this tureen, was the last owner of a company which had a very chequered history from 1826 to 1886. The longest continuous period of ownership in the 19th century was under the founding family of Mayer, including the three Mayer brothers who went into partnership in 1836 at Dale Hall Works, Fenton, Staffordshire. They and their successors' production was largely of useful wares in ironstone and earthenware. These wares were often lavishly ornamented with relief modelling, colour printing, painting or gilding. The company's fortunes fluctuated from the mid-1850s onwards. By the mid-1870s, as Bates, Elliott, Walker & Co., it was making jasperware (a fine-grained, hard, slightly translucent stoneware) using 18th-century moulds; terracotta figures; and sanitary, pharmaceutical and garden wares. Keeling & Co. took over in 1886 and continued production until 1936.
Collection
Accession number
C.1:1, 2-2001

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJuly 11, 2001
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest