I posted this unmarked late nineteenth century terra-cotta vase to my Instagram account two summers ago, although I do not recall having ever posted it to this website; although, I believe it may have been made by George W. Fenety (1850-1933) at the Chelsea Keramic Arts Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts in the 1870s. Additionally, the vase was actually found about five years ago in an old house in Peabody, Massachusetts, which is located about fifteen miles north of Chelsea.
Interestingly, the Chelsea Keramic Art Works was the first American ceramics company to designate itself exclusively as an "art pottery," and an early specialty of the firm was the reproduction of Ancient Greek pottery. I also suspect that the business may have been influenced or inspired by some of the ancient style art pottery that was made at the Charles A. Lawrence (1829-1904) Pottery in Beverly, Massachusetts in the early 1870s. The Beverly Pottery actually advertised itself as the first company in America to reproduce ancient pottery, a style that was already being produced in England and Europe. However, the Chelsea Pottery was the first company in America to exclusively specialize in art pottery. For more information about the Beverly Pottery - here is a link to a book that I wrote about this company: https://historicbeverly.net/product/the-beverly-pottery-the-wares-of-charles-a-lawrence/.
Nevertheless, among the potters who worked in Chelsea during this early period was Fenety, a Canadian-born artist who settled in Boston around 1871, and was employed as an engraver and a carver at the Chelsea Keramic Arts Works during the second-half of the 1870s.
Fenety's work is displayed today at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, among possibly other art museums. The MET displays at least three examples of Fenety's production, which the museum has stated in publication, "He was working with Hugh Robertson and his family as early as 1877, the year a vase he had ornamented with "convolvulus vine, leaves & flowers in high relief" was given to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The incised design he incised on this cylindrical vase with multiple registers of linear patterns in horizontal bands is wholly in the English reform mode. Critics often singled out Fenety’s work for praise, as they did for a vase with incised patterns "of remarkable grace and originality" shown at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association’s Exhibition in 1878. Fenety’s work in clay proved short-lived. For reasons unknown, beginning in the early 1880s the talented modeler turned his attention to art embroidery, an art form he pursued for the next four decades."
It is also important to note that aside from the vase that the MFA, Boston acquired from the Chelsea Pottery in 1877, the same year it was made by Fenety are other objects that were acquired from the pottery business. Fenety also often inscribed his pottery with his initials "GWF," although not everything that exists from his production today is marked.
Late 19th Century Terra-Cotta Vase Found in a House in Peabody, Mass.
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