Fan-shaped vase

This object is a very fine example of the series of vases designed by Harry Powell (grandson of the wine-merchant, James Powell, who had purchased the Whitefriars Glassworks in 1834). Harry Powell’s designs of the 1880s and ‘90s created a whole group of decorative vessels characterized by delicately irregular wavy-rimmed bowls and subtly tinted glass. The fineness of the glass, accentuated by the ruffles of the bowl, is inspired by Venetian cristallo. The fluid design of the delicately irregular, fan-shaped bowl is testament to the skill of the Whitefriars’ glassmakers and to Powell’s confidence in their craftsmanship, achieved by holding the partially-shaped molten glass upside down on the blowpipe and swinging it out to create the natural form rather than by more conventionally manually manipulating the glass with a crimping tool. In this, this piece exemplifies the core philosophy of James Powell & Sons to prize glassmakers’ technique and celebrate the colors and property of their material, rather than to simply depend upon surface decoration and embellishment. At the opposite end of their spectrum of production, James Powell & Sons also used the colors and format of this group of vases’ bowl designs to great and influential effect in more functional glassware as the bowls for oil lamps.