Vase

One of the most revered American potters is Adelaide Alsop Robineau, who worked alone in her studio in Syracuse, New York, in the demanding medium of porcelain. A successful china painter and teacher, she also co-published with her husband, Samuel, Keramic Studio, the highly influential periodical. Her artistic porcelains surpassed the work of any American studio potter. Although generally preferred throwing to casting, in about 1905 she produced a line of slip-cast vessels covered with crystalline glazes in the hope that these efficiently made wares might be more commercially viable than her labor-intensive carved work. Deviating from her usual autonomous practice, Robineau hired two male assistants to make the molds, cast the vessels, and firm them. This example, which bears the mark associated with her short-lived cast work, is exceptional in its taut design and especially in the crystalline glaze that covers its surface. Crystal formations engulf the top half and fall haphazardly over the lower portion. The potential profitability of the method, however, was not enough to keep Robineau producing them; she did not enjoy a process in which there was no handwork.

This vase is from the Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection of American art pottery donated to the Metropolitan Museum in 2017 and 2018. The works in the collection date from the mid-1870s through the 1950s. Together they comprise one of the most comprehensive and important assemblages of this material known.