John Sandon
Consultant
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Lot 252
A Thomas Webb and Sons cameo glass vase, circa 1890
18 May 2016, 10:30 BST
London, Knightsbridge£8,000 - £12,000
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A Thomas Webb and Sons cameo glass vase, circa 1890
Of generous ovoid form, the red ground overlaid in white and carved all around with a series of sunflowers, full-blown and partly in profile as they lean towards the sun, the leaves depicted in an almost three-dimensional effect as they twist and curl, three bees in flight among the blooms, the flared neck with a border of a white band carved with a floret and leaf chain, 20cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
A British private collection
The sunflower was an iconic emblem of the Aesthetic Movement and as such it was usually depicted with rigid symmetry. In contrast, however, this vase presents the flowers with a sense of freedom and realism not often found in English cameo glass. Sunflowers were used to decorate a magnificent vase shown by Thomas Webbs at the Paris World Exposition in 1889, now in the Toledo Museum and illustrated by Ray and Lee Grover, English Cameo Glass (1980), col. pl.C48. Another sunflower vase was sold by Skinners auctioneers, 8 December 2007, lot 133, see also Ray and Lee Grover, op cit, col. pl.C182.