An icy season calls for an icy glaze. This handsome piece by Fulper (c. 1905, Flemington, New Jersey) is glazed in an organic Impressionist Winterscape of lustrous and crystalline glazes—frosty blues and just a hint of green. Think of a frozen, icy rock face or the hard, shiny surface of an icebound lake.
Fulper was one of the true "art pottery" workshops in America during the Arts & Crafts period, attempting to emulate the coveted "Oriental" glazes which had eluded Western potters. Although the company had started its life (in the Nineteenth Century) by making utilitarian wares, by the Turn-of-the-Twenieth-Century, Fulper was hiring skilled artists and technicians to produce quality, expensive art pottery. Part of this high-minded mission may account for Fulper's inability to enjoy great profits—such is the nature of bespoke ceramics production: high labor costs and slow output. After World War One (but before World War Two), the company transitioned away from the "Oriental" wares and began making more contemporary, mass-produced Art Deco items under the new company owner's name: Martin Stangl.
But this vase, shown above, is a beauty. And part of Fulper's artful legacy. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248