Vase

Established in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York in 1881, the Faience Manufacturing Company produced ornamental ceramic wares, such as vases, umbrella stands and jardinieres. In 1894, china decorator Edward Lycett (1833–1910) joined the firm as artistic director. Trained in the Staffordshire pottery industry, Lycett immigrated to the United States in 1861 and established a china painting business in lower Manhattan. Renowned for his artistic skill, Lycett enjoyed a successful career, and instructed numerous amateurs in china painting. With the assistance of a team of twenty-five talented china decorators, Lycett created new designs for the firm that display a synthesis of Near and Far Eastern decoration enriched with lavish raised gold paste decoration.

While artistic director at the firm, Lycett's persistent experimentation resulted in the more refined ceramic bodies, and ultimately in porcelain. Lustre glazes, so characteristic of Near Eastern ceramics, also fascinated Lycett. This vase is a rare example of lustre-glazed porcelain produced by the Faience Manufacturing Company under Lycett's tenure. Like many of the firm's wares, the squat-bodied vase, with its cylindrical neck and angular handles, derives from an Asian ceramic form. Its most distinguishing characteristic however, is its metallic lustred surface, decorated with stylized sunbursts embellished with scrolling foliage outlined in gold, and applied jeweled decoration.

For an example of the firm's early work, see L.1997.45.2 For other examples of the firm's later work, see: 1981.432.4, 1984.424, 1986.57, 1991.58, 2002.443, 2004.95. For an example of Lycett's china painting, see L.1991.74.1.