Pilgrim flask

The Chelsea Keramic Art Works was the first American ceramics firm to designate itself an "art pottery." It was founded in Chelsea, Massachusetts, by members of the Robertson family, all of whom had honed their skills in the ceramics industry in Britain before coming to this country. This pilgrim vase is typical of Hugh Robertson’s work in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Although its form relates to medieval canteens, this vessel is more directly aligned with contemporary English art wares, notably vases executed at the Mintons and Doulton potteries. Here, a carved design of two nesting marsh wrens on the front and flowering plants on the back are hand-incised in a fluent styles. The plants on the back side are arranged asymmetrically, a gentle reminder of the influence of Japanese aesthetics in this country.


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.