Iridescent Iron-Rust Vase

Description For every illustration in "Oriental Ceramic Art" (New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1897), an exceptionally precise watercolor was made of each piece chosen from Walters' collection to serve as a model and guide through the lithographic process. These were intended as exact portraits of each particular vessel. Louis Prang entrusted this work to James Callowhill (1838-1907) and his sons James (1865-1927) and Percy (1873-ca. 1955). The Callowhills had trained as ceramic painters in Worcester, England, before coming to the United States to work for Prang. With Prang, they primarily painted floral subjects for reproduction in chromolithography. During the seven years that it took to produce the watercolors for "Oriental Ceramic Art," the Callowhills lived and worked in Walters' house on Mount Vernon Place.

Exhibitions

• Realistic Perfection: The Making of Oriental Ceramic Art. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2011.

Provenance William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1889, by commission; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance [the watercolors were not completed until between 1895 and 1897, when Henry Walters finally took possession of them]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions v. #33 margin sketch of man with hat r. XIX p96w 49.2063 pl. XIX

Credit Commissioned by William T. Walters, 1889