'Flamminian Ware' vase
William Moorcroft
Life Story
This Flamminian ware vase is one of pair in Sir Colin Anderson’s collection of Art Nouveau. From the base upwards, the vase widens terminating in a high rounded shoulder. Wheel thrown, this stoneware vessel is glazed green and its body decorated with three heart-shaped foliate roundels expressed as a raised slip outline. This fashionable aesthetic was inspired by East Asian monochrome ceramic wares and celadon glazes that had found popularity among European and American advocates of Japonisme and Art Nouveau.
The vase was designed by William Moorcroft (1872-1945) and manufactured in 1905 by James Macintyre & Co, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent for retail at Liberty & Co. Ltd. William Moorcroft was born in Burslem, Staffordshire and attended the Burslem School of Art. [1] In 1898, a year after completing his education at the National Art Training School at South Kensington, he found employment with James Macintyre & Co. Ltd. [2] He explored decorative techniques that combined coloured glazes and slip-trailing while developing the Florian tableware and ornamental range. [3] A more restrained use of slip-trailed decoration is a feature of the Flamminian ware vases.
Moorcroft started to produced ceramics for the London retailer Liberty & Co around 1900 and these works carry the mark ‘Made for Liberty & Co.’ [4] Each vase in Sir Colin’s collection is signed W. Moorcroft on the underside with the printed mark Rd No 452777 Made for Liberty & Co.
Moorcroft’s green Flamminian ware reveal the potters early interest in lustres. Both the red and green wares from the Flamminian range were registered in 1905 and produced mainly for Liberty. [5] When blue Famminian ware launched in 1914, Moorcroft was no longer with James Macintyre & Co. Ltd, having left the company in 1913 to establish his own factory in Cobridge, Burslem. [6]
Vanessa Tothill, April 2021
[1] Amanda Geitner and Emma Hazell, eds, The Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau (Norwich: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, 2003), p. 137.
[2] Geitner, p. 137.
[3] Geitner, p. 137.
[4] Geitner, p. 137.
[5] Geitner, p. 137.
[6] Geitner, p. 137.
Further Reading
Amaya, Mario, Art Nouveau (London: Dutton Vista, 1966)
Geitner, Amanda and Emma Hazell, eds, The Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau (Norwich: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, 2003)
Greenhalgh, Paul, ed., Art Nouveau, 1890-1914 (London: V&A Publications, 2000)
Greenhalgh, Paul, ed., The Nature of Dreams: England and the Formation of Art Nouveau (Norwich: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, 2020)
Not on display
Title/Description: 'Flamminian Ware' vase
Artist/Maker: William Moorcroft
Born: 1905
Technique: Glazing, Throwing
Measurements: h. 145 x w. 75 x d. 75 mm
Inscription: facsimile signature 'W. Moorcroft' and printed mark 'Rd No 452777 Made for Liberty & Co'
Accession Number: 21079B
Production Place: Britain, England, Stoke-on-Trent
School/Style: Art Nouveau
Credit Line: Donated by Sir Colin and Lady Anderson, 1978
