Lamp base
This lamp base epitomizes Faience Manufacturing Company’s earliest work. The applied sculptural decorations of blooming prunus branches, painted in bright colors, imitated more expensive French high-relief barbotine ware and drew on Japanese motifs popular in the 1880s. The lamp appealed to middle-class Americans’ desire for aesthetically appealing but affordable utilitarian and decorative ceramics. Faience Manufacturing Company offered a variety of forms, retailing both finished pieces and undecorated, bisque-fired ceramics. A trade catalog in The Met collection (36.500.1) documents that the lamp sold for $5.00 with the decoration shown in this example.
Artwork Details
- Title:Lamp base
- Manufacturer:Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
- Date:ca. 1881–92
- Medium:Earthenware
- Dimensions:Height: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Width: 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm) - Credit Line:Gift of Donna and Maurice Lewis, in honor of Andrew Van Styn, 2025
- Object Number:2025.832.2
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
1881–82
Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
1886–90
Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
1886–90
Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
1886–90
Faience Manufacturing Company (American, Greenpoint, New York, 1881–1892)
1886–90
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