Vase

The British metalsmithing firm Elkington & Company used a new and, for the time, cutting-edge technology to produce these vases. The base and body of each vessel were electroformed, a process that activated an electrical charge to deposit base metals into a mold. Once this work was complete, the vases were painstakingly enameled by hand in the Japanese style. This blend of new technology and traditional hand skill — a combination that the manufacturer promoted as an amalgam of “artistic taste and chemical cunning” — found a ready audience in America. Enameled vases like these received great acclaim at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial, where they were exhibited as part of the Elkington & Company display.