Vase 1903

The Denver China and Pottery Company created this vase, of unknown date, using glazed earthenware. Institutions shape art, and the Denver China and Pottery Company’s output embodies this. Founded in 1901, and bankrupt by 1905, it existed for a brief period in which the Arts and Crafts movement was at its height. The sinuous plant-like forms evoke the contemporary Art Nouveau style, and the choice of green glaze is characteristic of the aesthetic interest in nature that informed both movements. The vase is both an artwork, and a commodity, produced by a company that sought to harness the popularity of these styles, for a profit. To fully understand the vase, and the company that produced it, one might research how art pottery was marketed and consumed in the American West at the turn of the century, using local census records, newspaper archives, and company documents. The meaning of art is contingent on its historical context.