Vase 1926

Charles Fergus Binns made this vase, just over 10 inches tall, with clay and glaze. Looking at its slick surface, I can imagine the glaze pooling, dripping, and being fired at a high temperature to give it that glassy sheen. I wonder what Binns was thinking about when he made this. I like to think he was thinking about water. Check out how the colors graduate from the cool greens at the neck, like algae near the surface, to a deep oceanic blue, and then to the silty, muddy sludge at the bottom. Like a cross-section of a lakebed, maybe? And in one small section, those drips of black glaze look a lot like little tadpoles swimming down the belly of the vase. Even the shape, with its wide bottom and narrow top, seems ready to be filled with water and have flowers put in it. This vase is cool and pretty, like a well.