Vase

The Rookwood Pottery, founded by Maria Longworth Nichols in 1880, became one of the most significant and longest surviving of all American art potteries, remaining in operation until well after World War II. During Rookwood’s early years, Nichols made significant contributions to work in the barbotine manner, a technique of using pigmented slip applied in a painterly fashion under a clear glaze. In 1887 Kataro Shirayamadani, a Japanese porcelain painter, was hired to broaden the pottery’s offerings of work in the Japanesque style. While a talented artist,　Shirayamadani had no previous experience in underglaze painting, but quickly became one of the pottery’s most accomplished decorators in this technique.

The quality and execution of this applied decoration is superb, and it is among the most successful designs in Rookwood Pottery’s Black Iris glaze line. The individual stalks of pampas grass in a bright sage green stand in contrast to the luminous black background. The dramatic design was conceived and executed by Shirayamadani, who was hired to broaden the pottery’s offerings of work in the Japanesque style.