1905 E.T. Hurley Rookwood Iris Vase
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GUEST:
I inherited it from my grandmother. I don't really know a lot about it, but she had a father who has on a merchant ship that went to the Orient. So the story's always been that it came to the family through him. But I really don't know very much.
APPRAISER:
Of Asian origins.
GUEST:
That's what I'm thinking.
APPRAISER:
It certainly looks that way, and it's one of the things I wanted to talk about because it is actually an American piece.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
But it looks Asian, it's not by accident. Because we think about American Art Nouveau, and American Art Nouveau tends to blend together different influences, different design elements. Certainly European Art Nouveau is a factor, but Asian art was incorporated into American Art Nouveau. And this piece was surprisingly influenced by an earlier piece by an Asian artist, who I thought did your piece when I first saw it, the man by the name of Kataro Shirayamadani. Can you flip this over for us?
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for helping me move the piece around. I had rotator cuff surgery. So this has the full retinue of Rookwood marks. The Rookwood "R.P." in the flames, five for the date, 1905, classic Art Nouveau era for Rookwood. But also the artist's signature. And when I first saw it, I saw the bottom half of it, which looked like Kataro Shirayamadani's mark. But then I just went back and got my glasses and looked again, and it's actually a rare full signature of E. Timothy Hurley's, so E.T. Hurley. So laid out completely it looks like the Japanese mark. Perhaps it's intentional on his part, because I saw a piece about 25, 30 years ago at a gallery in New York City identical to this. Same shape, same swallow decoration filling the vase, but with a brown background, not salmon pink. Because it was a brown background, it was Victorian in feel, as opposed to yours with a salmon background, which is Art Nouveau. It's not just a vase with birds on it. It looks the way it does for specific reasons. It couldn't happen any other place at any other time. It had to happen in Cincinnati in 1905.
GUEST:
Ohio.
APPRAISER:
Ohio, yeah.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh, because I do have family from Ohio, and I never would have placed it there.
APPRAISER:
Can you flip it upside down for me again, please? Now if you notice, there is a wheel carved X into the bottom.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
That means it's a seconded piece. Rookwood was very particular about their work, and so if there was any flaw-- whether an artistic flaw, or a technical flaw-- they put an X on the bottom and sell it for half price. I can't find anything wrong with this piece. I've been over it several times. There's a little bit of misting in the neck, here there's a little whiteness in the neck. Maybe that's it, I'm not sure why they X'ed the piece. Because it looks to me flawless as Rookwood often is. But the X, even though it does not necessarily relate to a damage, affects the price. Because it's X'ed, I would say an auction estimate of somewhere between $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
Maybe $2,500 to $3,500 at auction.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
Without the X, it's double that-- it's a $4,000 to $6,000 piece.
GUEST (laughing): Oh, my gosh. Yeah, so it's so... Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
It does have a fair amount of impact in terms of pricing, but it has no impact on the beauty. It's a gorgeous piece.
GUEST:
I just love it, and knowing it was from my family meant a lot to me, too, but now it's even more, knowing the history of it. Amazing.
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