Swan Vase

Founded in 1759 by ceramic innovator and businessman Josiah Wedgwood I (1730–1795), the Wedgwood company enjoyed great success under his direction and into the early nineteenth century, but the venerable British firm was struggling by the 1840s. The leadership of Francis Wedgwood (1800–1888) and his three sons, Godfrey (1833–1905), Clement (1840–1889), and Lawrence (1844–1913), gradually shifted the pottery’s fortunes in the decades that followed. One key advance was the development of a superior line of majolica (lead-glazed earthenware), which Wedgwood introduced in about 1860 and continued to produce until 1918. During the peak years of its production, from 1865 to 1890, the ware formed a substantial percentage of the firm’s output, and by the 1870s, Wedgwood was manufacturing more majolica than any other kind of ornamental pottery.

Designed in about 1875, the Swan Vase is Wedgwood’s most impressive model made in majolica. Examples of this monumental vase were a highlight of the firm’s international exhibition displays in the 1870s and 1880s, including those in Paris in 1878, Sydney in 1879–80, and Melbourne in 1880–81. The Walters’ Swan Vase was likely part of a display of Wedgwood and other British ceramics and glass mounted by Thomas Webb & Sons at the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition of 1888–89. Webb was a leading British producer of art and table glass and its Australian division imported and retailed the firm’s own products as well as ceramics made by a variety of British manufacturers. In September 1888, the “Australasian” newspaper described “The fine collection of Wedgwood ware exhibited by Messrs. Thomas Webb and Sons, the local representatives of the factory” then on display in the world’s fair taking place in Melbourne. A highlight of this display was “A very large specimen of Wedgwood Majolica, resting on three swans, and crowned by one of these birds with outspread wings” that the reporter noted was “rich in colour and brilliant in glaze.”

Several of the Swan Vases shown at world’s fairs were decorated with elaborate painted scenes, while others featured glaze treatments that mimic stone—including “Aberdeen granite,” porphyry, or red agate as we see in the Walters’ example. Another Swan Vase that was exhibited at two international exhibitions in Australia in the 19th century remained in the country and is now held by the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (accession no. 2012/62/1). The museum purchased this example in 2012 from an antiques dealer who had bought it at a Sydney auction in 2010. The Powerhouse Museum example is elaborately decorated with painted scenes as is another example that was in the Wedgwood company collection until 1904 when it was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (accession no. C488). Two examples in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art feature mottled majolica glazes, probably intended to imitate stone (accession nos. 1995.288.1a–c and 1995.288.2a–c). An example with decoration like the Walters’ example is in the Henry B. Plant Museum in Sarasota, Florida (accession no. 1998.100). Manufactured in 1886, it was purchased to furnish the Tampa Bay Hotel (opened 1891) by Henry and Margaret Plant.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Sale, Sotheby’s, Melbourne, Australia, 29 August 2005, lot 763; purchased by Australian antiques dealer, 2005; purchased by Nick Boston Antiques, London, 2005; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 2006; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.