Murrhine vase
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890-1903
name: label: maker
content: Lycett, Edward
notes: label: Description
content: About Edward Lycett Pottery:
label: Description
content: Edward Lycett arrived in the United States in 1861 and quickly received important commissions such as the 1865 White House painted porcelain service for President Abraham Lincoln. He produced the first vitrified china in America with pure gilt decoration for Tiffany & Company. Travelling across America, Lycett taught the decorative technique of china painting at major ceramic centers such as Cincinnati and East Liverpool, Ohio, where soon-to-be influential women in the art pottery movement, Maria Longworth Nichols and Mary Louise McLaughlin, began their careers as china painters. Within his own time, Lycett was called “the pioneer of china painting in America” by ceramic historians. In 1890, at the age of 57, Edward Lycett left Faience Manufacturing (See About Faience Manufacturing Company) when it was sold and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to work in his son William’s studio. He continued to experiment with clay and glaze materials as well as different firing techniques until he died in 1910. A number of small pieces were donated to the Smithsonian and illustrate the breakthroughs of Edward Lycett’s experimentation. Rather than making flat test tiles, Lycett chose to make miniature forms to test his various metallic effects. Such cruets, vases, pitchers, and heart-shaped dishes display red iridescence, mirrored and matte gilding, and bubbling glaze techniques.
label: Description
content: About the Object:
label: Description
content: An Edward Lycett "Murrhine" vase described by Lycett as being carved out of natural rock by Persian or Chinese workers and afterwards glazed and fired in a kiln by himself. Small vase appears to be another one of Lycett's test pieces. Carved circular decoration on one side and leaf vines on the other side with a tiered base having two feet. The glaze test bubbled or pinholed where it was too thick and ran onto the bottom. Most likely used a copper oxide glaze.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Georgia, Atlanta
topic: label: Subject
content: Art Pottery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Edward Lycett
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.219499
label: catalog number
content: 219499
label: accession number
content: 40527
objectType: label: Object Name
content: vase
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, green (overall surface decoration color name)
label: Physical Description
content: ceramic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 1 3/4 in x 1 1/4 in; 12.065 cm x 4.445 cm x 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 7/8 in x 1 7/8 in x 1 5/16 in; 12.3825 cm x 4.7625 cm x 3.33375 cm