Ovoid mustard-glazed vase with pierced rim and four handles modelled as dragons or sea serpents in the grotesque style.
Mark: Impressed SALOPIAN mark.
Height: 210mm / 8.25in
Images: © James Miles Ltd., Stourbridge, November 2016
Compare with Clément Massier vase below, c.1900.
- Three idiosyncratic examples of Salopian Art Pottery modelled byJames Arthur “Arty” Hartshorne (1873–1936) exist – a goblin, a gorilla and a smoker. They fall into a group of art pottery broadly referred to as “grotesques”.
- The pieces are moulded and exist in three distinct colourways – blue, green and amber.
- They have a hand-incised Salopian script mark with the initials JAH for James Arthur Hartshorne.
- The pieces can be dated to c.1900–1910, as evidenced by a gorilla jar adapted into a money box which bears an inscription to the base: "Elizabeth Lilian Taylor Born Jan 19th 1908” (Edmundson 2002, p47).
- The goblin vase bears a similarity to the grotesques modelled c.1900 by Blanche Vulliamy (1869–1923), who created goblin figures with wrinked features, wild eyes and open mouths for the Aller Vale Pottery, Torquay.
- In addition to the grotesques modelled by James Arthur Hartshorne, a fourth example can be included in this category of ware – a vase with handles modelled as dragons or sea serpents (see panel, right). This is an exact copy of a vase designed by French ceramicist Clément Massier (1844-1917).
