Pinch bottle

Christopher Dresser

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bottle demonstrates the strong influence of Japanese ceramics on Christopher Dresser (1834–1904), a prolific designer who played a key role in promoting the industrial arts in Victorian England. In 1876, Dresser became the first designer to be invited by the Japanese government to study the arts of Japan as a delegate of the newly opened South Kensington Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum). His keen interest in the unconventional forms and experimental glazes of Meiji period ceramics such as Awaji pottery merged with domestic traditions in English salt-glazed wares in the designs he produced for Linthorpe Art pottery (1878–1889). William Ault purchased and used the Linthorpe factory’s molds based on Dresser’s shapes when he established his pottery in 1887, and formally hired Dresser as a designer in 1894. This bottle was first designed by Dresser during the Linthrope period, and was later produced by Ault pottery around 1892.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art