Match pot
1869
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Robert Wilson Collection. Gift of Dr Robert Wilson, 2012
- Gallery location
- 18th & 19th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
The decoration on this match pot or spill vase was designed by Christopher Dresser, one of the most innovative British designers of the nineteenth century. It reveals the direct influence in both motif and colour palette of nineteenth-century Chinese embroidered textiles as well as cloisonné enamels. Note the Chinese auspicious symbol that Dresser has included, faithfully copied, yet its meaning was no doubt completely lost on a European audience at the time. Despite this greater fidelity to genuine Chinese design sources, the application of these motifs on to a European ceramic form is a wholly European conceit.
Artwork Details
The Robert Wilson Collection. Gift of Dr Robert Wilson, 2012
Level 2, NGV International