Vase with peacock feathers

Maker: Auguste Delaherche (French, Beauvais 1857–1940 Paris)

Date: ca. 1889

Culture: French, Paris

Medium: Stoneware

Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): 17 3/16 × 8 5/8 × 8 5/8 in., 12.6 lb. (43.7 × 21.9 × 21.9 cm, 5.7 kg)

Classification: Ceramics-Pottery

Credit Line: Robert A. Ellison Jr. Collection, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2013

Accession Number: 2013.483

Description

Although Delaherche would later denounce the use of ornament, he frequently used decorative motifs with feathers or floral patterns early in his career. Favored for their iridescence and exoticism, peacock feathers were a popular Art Nouveau motif, appearing on Tiffany glass and other decorative arts. Two examples of this vase were shown in Delaherche’s display at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, where he won a gold medal.

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