Vase

The Rörstrand Porcelain Manufactory was established in 1726 under the patronage of the Swedish royal family. Today it is most noted for its Art Nouveau porcelain, made around the turn of the twentieth century. This vase represents a particularly beautiful Art Nouveau line known as “Rörstrand Black,” which fed the demand for high-gloss, black-ground vessels with pastel floral decorations. At that time, black was a new, technically achieved underglaze color; all of the leading potteries, including Rookwood (Black Iris line), Meissen, Sèvres, and Royal Copenhagen, exhibited it.

The vase bears a pastel poppy decoration taken from Swedish flora on a black ground, all covered with a high-gloss glaze. The poppy, as seen here, is a common Art Nouveau symbol of sleep or death. It was often depicted on a black ground to reinforce those concepts.

Decorator Per Algot Erikso, a porcelain painter and ceramist, began working at Rörstrand in 1886, after studying at the Technical School in Stockholm. The vase not only has Erikson’s painted initials on the bottom, but his full name, painted in gold, along with the company’s name and date. This gold inscription, the importance of the artist, and the size of the vessel suggest that it is a special piece, possibly made for an international exposition. In 1904, the year the vase was created, Rörstrand participated in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The company hoped to penetrate the vast American market and especially to reach the large numbers of Scandinavians who had immigrated to the Midwest. The vase probably entered the United States at that time.