Covered Vase on Plinth

Trenton, New Jersey was the epicenter in North America for the manufacture of both fine and commercial grade ceramics during the late nineteenth century. The Burroughs and Mountford pottery was best known for the good quality hotel ware produced in large quantity for sale to a national market. In 1892, however, the firm embarked on the making of more sophisticated art wares. This monumental covered vase is one of the most ambitious examples of American ceramics known. Like many potteries, the impetus for making this and a higher class of ceramics derived from the firm's desire to make an impressive showing at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Said to have been executed by a Japanese artist, it displays finely worked raised silver and gold decoration on a rich mazarine-blue ground—a virtual compendium of Japanesque motifs, in vogue with Western decorative artists during the last quarter of the nineteenth century: a golden hawk with ducks, resplendent peacock, peonies, chrysanthemums, prunus blossoms, lotus blossoms, and stylized Japanesque clouds. The vase recalls Japanese lacquer or Satsuma wares, as well as fine porcelains in the Japanese style of Minton's or Royal Worcester, which were popular with the American public. A tour de force, at the time it was made, it was considered "a masterpiece of American pottery."