Morgan Vase

Manufacturer Hobbs, Brockunier & Co. (American (Wheeling, WV), 1845 - 1891)

Datec. 1886-1891

OriginUSA

MediumGlass: vase, mold- blown; stand, pressed

Dimensions10 1/4 × 3 1/8 in. (26 × 7.9 cm)

ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Glass

Credit LineGift of Ann and Henry Brunnier. In the permanent collection of the Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.2.8.5*

Object number3.15.94ab

Status

Not on view

Collections

Decorative Arts

CultureAmerican

Label TextFollowing London's Great Exhibition of 1851, the Victorian sense of "good taste" emphasized more ornate works. Some glassmakers met this demand by creating dramatic color effects. Several American factories produced Peachblow glass, which had a surface that shaded from opaque cream to pink or red, sometimes over opaque white. This glass was made in imitation of the Morgan Vase, a famous 18th-century Chinese "peachbloom" porcelain vase that sold at auction in 1886 for the astonishing price of $18,000. This sale was widely reported, and glass and pottery manufacturers raced to capitalize on the publicity by producing objects that resembled the Morgan Vase in shape and color. The pressed glass stand on the Morgan Vase was made to resemble the Chinese carved wood stand for the peachbloom vase. Lead glass, cased; core of white glass, casing of yellow shading to deep wine-red glass, outer casing of colorless glass; blown; cylindrical neck flaring slightly at rim, tooled collar-like ribs at base, ovoid body with flat shoulder, and tapering to small base with ground and polished pontil mark. Pressed amber glass holder, circular pedestal with five equidistant "dragons" around sides, heads extending above rim, feet forming table rest. Many of the late-nineteenth-century art glass lines catered to a growing American connoisseurship of and public interset in Chinese porcelains. This interest can be somewhat attributed to the sale of a Qing Dynasty porcelain vase owned by Mary Morgan. Auctioned on March 8, 1886, the peach-bloom Morgan Vase, as it came to be known, sold for $18,000. Copies of the vase were made in glass by Hobbs, Brockunier and Company. Other factories also copied version of the vase and its color. This vase is one of Hobbs, Brockunier and Company's imitations of the Morgan Vase. The vase is blown glass with a white interior, while the griffin-design base is pressed amber glass. The type of glass used for the vase became known as amberina, developed by Joseph Locke at the New England Glass Company, who patented the technique in 1883. The gradual coloration transition was achieved by adding gold to the glass batch and repeatedly reheating the glass, causing it to change from yellow to mahogany red.

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