Reptile Vase c. 1915

The Fulper Pottery Company created this mysterious vase, a deep pool of midnight blue, sometime between 1860 and 1955. Imagine the potter’s hands coaxing this form, round and full like a gourd, then elongating into a slender neck. I wonder about the impulse to add that little snake, coiling up the side, a tiny, watchful guardian. What was the artist thinking? I feel like it needed the snake. The glaze is so thick and glossy, like a liquid skin. The light catches it in all the right places, accentuating the curves and the subtle undulations of the surface. I keep thinking about the way the glaze must have dripped and pooled during the firing, creating those subtle variations in color and texture. It's that sense of control and chance, intention and accident. This piece feels like a dialogue with the history of ceramics, from ancient vessels to art deco forms. Artists are always looking, borrowing, and riffing off one another, remixing the past to create something new.