Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2013.

Vase with Cupid

Designer Joseph Locke (American, 1846-1835)

ManufacturerProbably Hodgetts, Richardson and Son (English, 1871-1882)

CultureEnglish

Dateca. 1877-1878

MediumBlown cased glass, etched, cameo-carved

DimensionsOverall: 7 5/8 in. (19.4 cm)

InscribedUnsigned

Credit LinePurchase, with funds from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Endowment for Glass

Object number2002.2

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 116-5, Case 35

DescriptionThis is a blown, acid-etched and cameo carved glass. This vase is blown in two layers of glass-opaque white on a deep transparent cobalt blue. A figure of cupid in flight with his head turned back, looking over shoulder, appears on the side of the vase against the plain dark blue ground. The opaque white glass of the cupid and of the wafer in the stem immediately below the bowl of the vase have been polished to a shiny finish, all of the other opaque white areas have been given a contrasting matte finish. The neck and foot both have a border consisting of an acid-cut, repeating white scroll on a blue ground set within a broad white band. The mouth of the vase has a broad white rim that ends in a dark blue outer edge that frames the white edge of the scroll border. A narrow white stripe is positioned immediately below that border. The stem consists of a narrow white wafer, a blue horizontal band (probably intended to mirror the narrow blue stripe on the edge of the rim), and a row of white scallops that leads into the scroll border.

Label TextJoseph Locke English (1846-1936) Hodgetts, Richardson & Son Stourbridge, England Vase with Cupid, ca. 1877-78 Blown cased glass, etched, cameo-carved Museum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Endowment Fund 2002.2 A visitor to the World's Fair of 1878 would have immediately seen that the image of Cupid on this vase is borrowed from the image of Cupid on The Portland Vase since Locke's copy of that vase was also on display at the Fair. An article on Hodgetts, Richardson & Son, also illustrated this vase in the Art Journal in 1878. Approved By: ERLProvenanceLeo Kaplan, Ltd., New York; Purchased by the Chrysler Museum of Art, 2002. Exhibition HistoryParis World's Fair, 1878. "Cameo Performances: Masterpieces of Cameo Glass from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA., June 29, 2008 - December 30, 2012. Published ReferencesCharles R. Hajdamach, _British Glass 1800-1914_ (Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club Ltd., 1991), 114, pl. 86. This shows the vase on display during the Paris World Fair, 1878. Sotheby's, _British and European glass, including the Rinceaux collection_ (Olympia, London: Sotheby's, 12/18/2001), sale WO1204, lot 202.