Brooklyn Museum: Decorative Arts: Morgan Vase and Stand

Morgan Vase and Stand

On March 8, 1886, William T. Walters, the founder of the art gallery that became the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, paid $18,000 for a Chinese vase of peach blow, or peach bloom, porcelain, so named because of the peach like shaded coloring of the glaze. The publicity surrounding the extraordinary price precipitated the manufacture of reproductions of the vase in glass. In April 1886, only one month after the much-publicized sale, Hobbs, Brockunier & Company began to advertise a "Facsimile-Morgan ($18,000) vase and stand." The body of the vase was reproduced in glass that imitated the graduated coloring of the original porcelain, and the original bronze metal stand was reproduced in cast amber glass.

Maker: Hobbs, Brockunier & Company, 1863-1887
Medium: Glass
Place Made: Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
Dates: ca. 1886
Dimensions: 9 7/8 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (25.1 x 8.9 x 8.9 cm)
Collections: Decorative Arts
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, 5th floor
Accession Number: 1995.93a-b
Credit Line: H. Randolph Lever Fund
Image: Overall, 1995.93a-b_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

Catalogue Description: Colored glass vase (a) and stand (b). (a) Downward tapering cylindrical body with a high shoulder supporting a narrow tall neck pinched near base with a flared rim. Cased glass with opaque white inner layer and outer layer varies from dark red at neck and shoulder modulating to pale yellow on lower half of body. (b) Cup shape with flared sides with five molded beasts with pronounced clawed feet disposed symmetrically around cup shape all in amber glass. Condition: Two firing flaws on opposite side of upper body below neck; hairline 1/2" crack from rim.

Collections: Decorative Arts: Morgan Vase and Stand