Mantelpiece potpourri vase

Cream-coloured earthenware as a substitute for porcelain flourished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Josiah Wedgwood, owner of the Etruria factory, which still operates today as the Barlaston Works, was primarily responsible for using a number of brilliant technical innovations to turn ordinary pottery into first class ceramics. The firm of Wedgewood became the world’s best known maker of cream-coloured earthenware. Following the great success of English manufacturers, a series of factories sprung up elsewhere in Europe. The most notable cream-coloured earthenware factory in Slovenia was founded by the Schütz brothers in Liboje near Celje in 1871 and still operates as KiLi Liboje. The first factory of cream-coloured earthenware on Slovene territory was founded in Ljubljana. It was set up in 1790 by Anton Sylva in Gradišče but taken over for financial reasons only five years later by Žiga Zois. His well-known scientific thoroughness and business skills succeeded in making his factory’s products strong competitors to those of factories in Trieste, Graz and even Vienna. Zois employed a whole range of specialised stuff, who worked in various phases of the production process. There were even designers among them. Drawing room mantelpieces at the turn of the nineteenth century were often decorated with a pair of vases or urns (covered vases). This is a potpourri vase with pierced body. Dried spices and flowers were placed in it, which pleasantly scented the room.