{"product_id":"bisque-porcelain-scroll-form-bud-vase-with-blue-jasper-cameo-of-a-dancing-maiden-in-a-gilt-rococo-cartouche-attributed-to-schafer-vater-germany-c-1895-1915","title":"Bisque Porcelain Scroll-Form Bud Vase with Blue Jasper Cameo of a Dancing Maiden in a Gilt Rococo Cartouche, Attributed to Schafer \u0026 Vater, Germany, c. 1895–1915","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small three-sided bud vase in unglazed bisque porcelain, modelled as a sheet of paper caught part-way through unrolling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe walls curve into a soft triangle and the \u003cstrong\u003etop edge sweeps up at one corner\u003c\/strong\u003e, so the vase reads as a scroll standing on end rather than as a cylinder. At that raised corner and again at the foot sit \u003cstrong\u003eapplied clusters of relief flowers\u003c\/strong\u003e, moulded separately and pressed on, in the body colour throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe body is \u003cstrong\u003ematte, dry and faintly chalky\u003c\/strong\u003e, a pale greyish cream, with no glaze anywhere on the outside. The interior is glazed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe front carries an applied panel of \u003cstrong\u003ecornflower blue\u003c\/strong\u003e bearing a \u003cstrong\u003ewhite relief figure\u003c\/strong\u003e: a woman mid-dance, arms lifted, drapery falling away from one hip and a long scarf streaming above her head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAround it runs a \u003cstrong\u003eheavy gilt rococo cartouche\u003c\/strong\u003e — asymmetric C-scrolls, acanthus, and a large gilt daisy standing proud at each side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe base is flat and triangular, \u003cstrong\u003eimpressed 2962\u003c\/strong\u003e with a small \u003cstrong\u003e12\u003c\/strong\u003e, and carries \u003cstrong\u003ethree small blue painted dots\u003c\/strong\u003e in a row. There is no factory mark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe blue panel is an imitation of Wedgwood jasperware, and it was never meant to be taken for one.\u003c\/strong\u003e White relief figures on a coloured matte ground were Josiah Wedgwood's invention, and by the end of the nineteenth century they were the most widely copied effect in European ceramics. The fancy-goods factories of Thuringia built a trade on supplying that look at a price an ordinary household could pay — the shape, the colour and the cameo, without the name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSchafer \u0026amp; Vater was founded in 1890\u003c\/strong\u003e by Gustav Schaefer and Gunther Vater at Volkstedt-Rudolstadt in Thuringia, Germany, and in \u003cstrong\u003e1896\u003c\/strong\u003e bought a second works, the List Porcelain Manufactory at Neuhaus. Their business was small bisque porcelain: figural bottles, creamers, match strikers, hatpin holders, planters and bud vases, alongside a jasperware-imitation line in blue, green and pink.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \u003cstrong\u003efire destroyed the factory in 1918\u003c\/strong\u003e and it was rebuilt. Production fell away through the 1950s and the firm \u003cstrong\u003eceased trading in 1962\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThen the record itself was destroyed.\u003c\/strong\u003e In \u003cstrong\u003e1973\u003c\/strong\u003e the East German government took over the empty factory and destroyed the company's records and its moulds. That is the reason an impressed number like the \u003cstrong\u003e2962\u003c\/strong\u003e on this base cannot simply be looked up: the ledger it referred to no longer exists, and neither does the mould. What survives of the firm's output survives as objects, not as documentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe firm marked much of its work and not all of it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Marked pieces carry a crown above an R set in a star, frequently with a “Made in Germany” label. A substantial part went out unmarked, or carrying nothing but impressed mould numbers. This piece is of the second kind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe attribution rests on the object and is offered as an attribution, not as a marked identification.\u003c\/strong\u003e Unglazed bisque porcelain body; an applied jasper-imitation panel in blue with a white relief figure; a hand-gilt rococo cartouche; applied relief florets in the body colour; a small bud-vase format; and impressed mould and size numbers with no printed factory mark.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe figure is Art Nouveau, not classical, whatever the jasper dress suggests.\u003c\/strong\u003e A true Wedgwood jasper figure stands still, in classical drapery, composed in profile or three-quarter view. This one is caught in movement — weight off one foot, both arms up, a scarf lifted and floating behind her. That is the dancing maiden of the 1890s and 1900s, the same figure that runs through the posters, lamps and bronzes of the period, and it does not appear before the Art Nouveau decades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe gold was laid on by hand, and it has worn like it.\u003c\/strong\u003e It is thin across the crests of the scrolls and the tops of the daisies, where a small object gets picked up and put down, and full and bright down in the recesses where nothing touches it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003ethree blue dots\u003c\/strong\u003e on the base are a decorator's tally — a paint-shop mark recording whose hand or which batch, never intended to be read by a buyer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDated \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1895–1915\u003c\/strong\u003e on the firm's 1890 founding, the Art Nouveau dancing figure, the bisque-and-applied-jasper formula of the pre-war German fancy-goods export trade, and the impressed-only marking. No country-of-origin mark survives on the piece; German export novelties of this kind commonly carried an applied paper label, which is the first thing to be lost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eSmall bisque porcelain bud vase in a three-sided scroll form, glazed inside to hold water. Approx. 5½ in high and 2¼ in across.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGermany. Attributed to Schafer \u0026amp; Vater, Volkstedt-Rudolstadt, Thuringia — an attribution on the evidence of body, decoration and mould numbering, not a marked identification.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eThree-sided vase modelled as a partly unrolled scroll, the top edge sweeping up at one corner, with applied relief flower clusters at the raised corner and at the foot\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eApplied cornflower-blue panel with a white relief dancing figure in imitation of jasperware, framed by a hand-applied gilt rococo cartouche of C-scrolls, acanthus and daisies\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eUnglazed bisque porcelain with applied relief and over-glaze gilding; glazed interior\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eNo factory mark. Impressed 2962 and a small 12 to the base, with three blue painted decorator's dots.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1895–1915. Dated on the 1890 founding of the firm it is attributed to, the Art Nouveau dancing figure, the pre-war bisque-and-jasper-panel export formula, and the impressed-only marking.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good for age. The vase is sound and stands level, with no cracks, no repairs and no restoration; the applied flower clusters and the blue cameo panel are complete and firmly set, and the relief is crisp. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect wear to the gilding\u003c\/strong\u003e — thin across the crests of the scrolls and the tops of the daisies, full in the recesses — along with \u003cstrong\u003eminor roughness and small nicks to the edges of the base\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the light overall soiling that unglazed bisque always takes up. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA bud vase is the smallest piece of furniture in a house, and the one most likely to get used every week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt takes one stem, or two. A single rose, a sprig of lavender, a bit of rosemary off the windowsill, one branch of something flowering in March. That is a far lower bar than a proper arrangement, which is exactly why small vases earn their shelf space and large ones spend most of the year empty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe interior is glazed, so it holds water properly rather than weeping through the way unglazed ware does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat makes this one worth looking at is the contrast built into it. \u003cstrong\u003eBisque absorbs light.\u003c\/strong\u003e Unglazed porcelain is matte and dry and slightly chalky, and next to anything shiny it reads as stone or plaster rather than china. Against that dead-flat cream, the only two things in the whole object that catch light are the blue cameo and the gold around it — which is precisely the effect the maker was after, and it still works.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe scale puts it where larger pieces cannot go: a bathroom shelf, a bedside table, a narrow windowsill, the corner of a desk, in front of the books on a shelf. The three-sided form means it also sits into a corner in a way a round vase never quite does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpty it is a small sculpture, and it holds pens, brushes or a pair of scissors perfectly well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and unglazed bisque has one rule that matters more than any other. \u003cstrong\u003eIt is porous, and it does not give anything back.\u003c\/strong\u003e Dirt, oil, tea, ink and soap all go into the surface and stay there, and no amount of later cleaning brings them out. Keep it away from anything that stains and handle it with clean dry hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever soak it, and never wash it with soap or solvent.\u003c\/strong\u003e Dust it with a soft dry brush — a clean makeup brush or a soft toothbrush gets down into the relief flowers and the cartouche where a cloth cannot. If it needs more than that, a barely damp cotton swab on the glazed interior only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo not scrub the gilding\u003c\/strong\u003e, which is over-glaze and will come off under an abrasive, and keep the piece out of a dishwasher and a microwave entirely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor fresh flowers, stand a slim glass vial inside. The interior glaze copes with water on its own, but a vial keeps splashes off the bisque at the rim, which is where marks show first.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48046935277673,"sku":"VE-0729","price":135.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/8EAB0FD1-4018-4FF8-BF0A-EB8D3E647B4E.jpg?v=1789273489","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/bisque-porcelain-scroll-form-bud-vase-with-blue-jasper-cameo-of-a-dancing-maiden-in-a-gilt-rococo-cartouche-attributed-to-schafer-vater-germany-c-1895-1915","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}