Art Nouveau vase from Rörstrand
Porcelain on which plants creep up the walls – the softest form of Swedish Art Nouveau.
Alf Wallander became artistic director at Rörstrand in 1895 and brought continental Art Nouveau into Swedish porcelain. There were models in Copenhagen, where Royal Copenhagen painted landscapes in underglaze colours.
The vases were shown at the Paris World’s Fair of 1900 and made Rörstrand known in Europe. They were expensive art objects, but their motifs spread to simpler services.
Materials: Porcelain with underglaze painting in muted colours and reliefs
Manufacture: Shaped and painted at Rörstrand in Stockholm under Alf Wallander’s direction.
Reliefs of flowers, reeds or fish that follow the form.
Muted, soft underglaze colours: grey, green, pale blue and pink.
Rörstrand’s mark under the base, often with three crowns, and sometimes Wallander’s signature.