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Vessel in the form of an animal

Designer Christopher Dresser British, Scottish
Manufacturer Thomas Webb & Sons British

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 516

This highly peculiar zoomorphic vessel, produced by the glass company Thomas Webb & Sons, once based at Stourbridge near Birmingham, is likely to be a one-off prototype of which no multiples appear to have been made for retail. Its enameled polychromy and naïve shape depart from the refined, etched and carved cameo glass for which the firm is better known. Was this creature simply too weird, even for the broadly minded collectors of the Aesthetic Movement?

Vessel in the form of an animal, Christopher Dresser (British, Glasgow, Scotland 1834–1904 Mulhouse), Glass, painted and gilded, British, Stourbridge

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