Object Type
This vase is a purely decorative object which met fashionable taste around 1900 . The form is known as a 'pilgrim bottle' shape and the glaze is copied from Chinese rouge flambé. This vase would impress as evidence of the owner's knowledgeable and artistic taste.

People
Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat (1840-1910) was born in Limoges. He was a very experienced maker by 1889, when he set up in Bourg-la-Reine, near Paris, where he collaborated with other makers but also, with his three sons, ran what was effectively a small family workshop. Like several of his contemporaries, Dalpayrat aimed to make reasonably priced artistic stoneware with coloured glazes. A highly commercial maker, he also made unique works perfecting a rich red glaze known as Rouge Dalpayrat.

Materials & Making
Based on mineral (usually iron or copper) oxides, flambé glazes (or transmutation glazes) are fired at high temperatures (up to 1500ºC) in a kiln atmosphere that is rich in carbon monoxide, owing to the shutting off of oxygen at a critical moment. (This is known as a 'reducing' atmosphere.) This results in a violent reaction within the glaze, which is transmuted into an unpredictable range of reds, purples, blues, lilacs and greens. The glaze was perfected by the Chinese in the 18th century and first copied successfully in Europe in the later 19th century. A less demanding version offering a similar appearance could be achieved by using a slip oxide fired at a low temperature. Unlike the true flambé, however, this was easily scratched.