William Henry Grueby (1867-1925) began his career working for a brickworks in Boston. As the company's representative he visited the Chicago Exposition, 1893, where he met other potters and saw the work of French ceramicists. Auguste Delaherche became a major influence. In 1894 he set up the Grueby Faience Co. to continue production of bricks, tiles etc but also to begin making pottery. George Prentiss Kendrick, already well-known as a designer in metal wares, was designer to the pottery until 1901. Grueby's production was an instant success and gold and silver medals were awarded at the international exhibtion, Paris, 1900. By then, their wares were sold by the influential Samuel (Siegfried) Bing at his celebrated shop L'Art Nouveau in Paris, from where the Museum purchased two examples. The clay used in the architectural faience production was also used for the pottery. The basic form was thrown and the raised leaves and flowers were applied in thin rolls of clay, arranged and worked by hand. Most modelling and decoration was done by the women students from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and other schools. Grueby developed a range of matt glazes of which the green of this vase (known as Grueby Green) was the most successful and the most imitated.