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1896.54.2

Ceramic vase with painted decoration

On display

1896.54.2

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Collection type
Object
Description
Ceramic vase with painted decoration
Long description
Water pot painted with designs of squash blossom, ducks on lake, clouds, rain, lightning.
Cultural groups
Zuni
Person
Field collector James Stevenson
PRM source Amabel Nevill Sollas
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1884
Date collected
By 1884
Acquisition information
Donated: 1896
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Material Pigment, Process Painted, Process Handbuilt
Dimensions
Diameter: max 370 mm, Height: max 300 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1896.54.2 Other numbers: Powell no. 2
Research and responses

James Stevenson collected in the Southwest in 1879, 1881 and 1884. Ref. Bureau of Ethnology Annual Reports 2 (1880-1) pp 429-465 , 3 (1881-2) pp 517-594 & 6 (1884-5) pp xxviii-xxix. [LM 26/11/99]

Related Documents File - Correspondence between Schuyler Jones, Jeremy Coote and Judy Rudoe (Curator, British Museum Department of Mediaeval and Later Antiquities) beginning July 1995. Ms Rudoe was interested in the connection between the animals drawn on several pieces of Zuni pottery in this collection and those used by James Powell on his glass vases, circa 19041905. This research was to be used in an essay on Powell's historical revival glass in a catalogue entitled Whitefriars Glass. The art of James Powell & Sons, which was to accompany an exhibition organized by Manchester City Art Galleries. [MOB 8/10/2001]

Associated publications
Published in black and white as figure 136 on page 50 of '"Glasses with Histories": Historic Revivals by Harry and James Crofts Powell', by Judy Rudoe, in Whitefriars Glass: The Art of James Powell & Sons, edited by Lesley Jackson (Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset: Richard Dennis, 1996), pp. 36-53. [Produced to accompany the exhibition Whitefriars Glass: The Art of James Powell & Sons, held at Manchester City Art Galleries, from 27 January to 20 June 1996, and at the Museum of London, from 30 July 1996 to 26 January 1997.] (The image reproduced is PRM negative A9.F15.7.) Caption (same page) reads: 'Pottery water pot with painted ducks by the Zuni tribe, New Mexico, seen by Harry Powell in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, in 1905. Harry used the duck motif as engraved decoration on a vase [illustrated elsewhere in the catalogue], h. 28 [cms, sic]'. Rudoe also writes (same page): 'In a category of its own ... is the squat vase in this exhibition engraved with ducks.... Harry's Travel Notes include sketches made in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in 1905 of a bowl with stylised birds, annotated "Modern Pottery, Zuni, New Mexico". The birds in this sketch differ from those on the Powell vase. Next to the sketch of the Zuni pot is a sketch of the duck on the Powell vase. The duck motif is taken directly from another large Zuni water pot acquired by the Pitt Rivers Musum in 1896 (fig. 136). The shape of the Powell vase is not Zuni, but Roman in inspiration. This vase appears to be the only example inspired by American prototypes.' In an endnote (no. 103 on page 53) Rudoe gives the accession number (1896.54.2) and the name of the donor (Mrs H. N. Moseley). (Photocopy of essay in RDF.) [JC 11 6 2009, 18 6 2009]

Search terms: Pottery, Food and Drink, Vessel, Figure, Food Accessory, Bird Figure

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