'Japanese vase'

Theo Colenbrander (1841 - 1930), N.V. Haagsche Plateelbakkerij Rozenburg, The Hague, 1888

earthenware, 45.7 cm
The Mesdag Collection, The Hague

Theo Colenbrander was perhaps the most experimental of all ceramic artists of the late nineteenth century. He was always looking for new body shapes and glazes. This blue vase is one of a pair that he himself called ‘Japanese’. The vases were inspired by oriental earthenware decorated purely with glazes.

In this design, Colenbrander was deliberately exploiting the huge popularity of Japanese ceramics and other fine and decorative arts in late nineteenth-century Europe. Mesdag was a great collector of Colenbrander’s ceramics; he bought almost everything that Colenbrander designed for the Rozenburg pottery in The Hague.

Object number

hwm0411a

Credits

The Mesdag Collection, The Hague

Dimensions

45.7cm x 27cm