Frederic Rhead, a Pair of Arts & Crafts Terracotta Vases with Peacocks, ca. 1900

MARKINGS Each candle holder is fully marked on the bottom, including date XX (ca. 1920) and model number (2304). ROOCKWOOD POTTERY Roockwood is the synonym of the American Art Pottery. Founded on Thanksgiving Day in 1880 by Maria Longworth Storer, Rookwood made history – the first large manufacturing enterprise founded and owned by a woman in the United States and launching the art pottery movement in America. Within a decade, Rookwood pottery gained international acclaim, rivaling European and Asian firms that had been in existence for hundreds or thousands of years. Maria Longworth Nicholas, was the daughter of a wealthy art collector, she was inspired by Japanese pottery. When she discussed her desire to create fine pottery with her father, he provided the means and environment that allowed her to pursue her creative passions. And although it may have started as a hobby, the talented Maria quickly managed to establish Rookwood pottery as a quality producer of fine ceramic art potter. She setup the Rookwood company, hired artists like Japanese artist Kataro Shirayamadani who came to work for the company in 1887, and talented art students and encouraged them to use their creativity to experiment and create unique pottery pieces. Almost every piece designed by these artists sold for hundreds of dollars, and today they are regarded as highly collectible. A Rookwood piece by Japanese artist Kataro Shirayamadani sold for $198,000 in 1991. He was a Rookwood artist from 1887 until 1948. The Rookwood airbrush, called the mouth atomizer, was developed by Rookwood to apply glazes in an innovative way. The technique helped the company develop its own individual look. The atomizer helped add the beautiful layers of color Rookwood is known for, and the technique is still used at the Rookwood pottery today. More well-known pottery manufacturers and recognized artists doubted this female led company would have what it takes to succeed, but much to their surprise Rookwood turned out to be one of the best. By combining extraordinary attention to detail and innovative design Maria Longworth Nicholas made Rookwood the standard for ceramic pottery manufacturers to aim for. Today antique and vintage Rookwood Pottery...

Alfonso Canciani (Italian-Austrian, 1863-1955) was a famous Italian-Austrian sculptor of the period of accession to the Viennese Secession. Son of a stonemason, after a realist period he managed to establish himself as a leading sculptor of the Viennese Secession. In fact, he worked in Vienna, where he had enrolled in 1886 at the Academy of Fine Arts, then at the Higher School of Sculpture and finally at the Special School, where he obtained the Rome prize for the sketch for Dante's Monument. He developed a notable business obtaining important prizes and numerous commissions. First among the sculptors of the Viennese capital, he was invited to join the Association of the Viennese Secession, of which Klimt was magna pars, after the exhibition of Dante's group in 1900 at the Secession exhibition, and obtained the most important Austrian artistic prize, the Kunstlerlpreis. This same work, presented in 1910 in Berlin, at the Great Art Exhibition, also received an important recognition here. He obtained the Rome prize in 1896, exhibited successfully in Munich and in 1899 at the III International Art Exhibition in Venice. In that period he made some statues of saints for the cathedral of Santo Stefano in Vienna, the monument to Wagner, the bust of Nietzsche for the University, the scepter and the gold chain of the University Rector, figures of Italian poets ( Petrarch, Boccaccio, Tasso, Ariosto). He submitted a sketch for the official monument to Empress Elizabeth, which was then built in Austrisn Gföhl and Pula. At the time of his accession to the Secession, he dedicated himself to decorating the facade of the Artaria house in Vienna in collaboration with the architect Max Fabiani. He later abandoned the symbolist decorativism of the Jugendstil for a more concentrated and vigorous style, approaching the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier for the theme of work, and preferring to exhibit at the Künstlerhaus. In Vienna, he was generous with advice and help with the Italians and in particular with his fellow citizens (such as the Brazzanese Luigi Visintin, then a university student). After the First World War, he returned to Italy and lived in Friuli, penalized by the fact that the Habsburg Empire had by now disappeared. Instead of large-scale public monuments, he then devoted himself to engraving medals (e.g. for Benedict XV and for the Italian mission in Vienna in 1919) and to designing funeral monuments (examples in Mali Lošinj and Trieste) and portrait busts (of Generals Carlo Caneva and Antonio Baldissera in Udine, sculptures of the War Memorial of Corno di Rosazzo). After all, he had already executed the Bab grave monument in the Döblinger cemetery in Vienna in 1909. He taught in Trieste from 1920 until 1935, at the local school of industrial art, where he had Marcello Mascherini...

Pair of L. Hjorth Art Nouveau Ceramic Vases Hand Decorated, Denmark, 1930s A pair of Danish Art Nouveau ceramic vases from the 1930s, handmade by L. Hjorth's ceramic workshop on the...

Orchies (attributed to) pair of ceramic vases circa 1900.