The Portland Vase Glass Original and Wedgwood Ceramic Copy

[Lucille Oka]

I am not obsessed with copying just aware of it really I'm not, no really, really.

 

This is the famous Portland Vase. The one on the left is the original glass constructed in Rome in 25 AD. On the right is the Wedgwood copy.

Josiah Wedgwood borrowed the original glass vessel from the 3rd Duke of Portland. Josiah was convinced that it was the most perfect vessel he had ever seen. He held on to the vase for four years to perfect the manufacturing of his ceramic (Jasperware) copy of the glass vase.

The original glass vase is located in the British Museum and the Wedgwood copy is in the V&A.

I am not sure that the four year effort was worth it. It is sort of a 'dumpy looking' thing. Even though his aim had to be the perfection of the lithophanes. But he also had the terrific sculptor John Flaxman, the younger, so he couldn't go too wrong.

[CarlCravens]

That vase has an interesting history... it was broken and glued back together.

 

It's an amazing piece of glass work for the period, in any case.

[Chris Campbell]

This is a great example of why artists should not worry too much about people copying them.

Four years of concentrated effort resulted in a vase that missed the loose liveliness of the original. The copy is so tight and static while the original almost breathes.

[Stephen Robison]

I would have to say I have seen both these pieces in real life and they are both finely crafted and pretty dam nice. The later piece by Wedgwood however does a finer job on the handles. But still it is a copy. What Chris said is so true. Influence is one thing but copying seems more about commercial motives then artistic motives. Wedgwood was certainly concerned about both however quite often there was not much in the terms or originality outside of his perfection of craft and techniques developed under the Wedgwood name. So back to what Chris said, I am actually drawn a little more to the tight and static qualities of the later piece. I am not sure why, maybe it is so exquisitely crafted that I believe it was still worth creating, even though it is a copy. Hum,,,, have to think about that myself??? So another issue that Chris raised is don't worry about people copying you. But I think when it comes to what you produce I feel strongly that we are all about appropriation and the conglomeration of knowledge and visual referencing that we have been exposed to and that we expose ourselves to. The continuation and constant research and searching by ourselves makes our work grow with the fertilization of what we feed our brain. History teaches the lesson that there is always something that leads to another and painters and potters and artists of all ilk have made work after something they saw that inspired them and most creators throughout history and in our contemporary context look inside their discipline for influence and then outside of that discipline and then within themselves. I pose this question to you Lucille, do you see yourself being influenced by this vase and how would you tackle that influence in your own work? And if so would you use materiality, technique, formal approaches, or conceptual content?

[Lucille Oka]

I am not influenced nor inspired by this vessel. I thought it was an interesting story about all of the time and expense just to translate a glass vessel into a ceramic vessel.