Europe 1800–1900

The Pegasus Vase offers a concentrated example of nineteenth-century ambition in ceramic design. Around it, glass, pottery and other applied arts show makers drawing on historical styles while working with changing technologies. Industry altered how objects could be produced and distributed, while skilled handwork continued. The room lets you compare those approaches through things made for use and display. A familiar older shape could acquire a new material, process or audience. Wedgwood versions of the Portland Vase belong to this history of looking back and making again. The ancient cameo-glass Portland Vase is in Room 70. Here, its ceramic descendants show how an admired work could become a challenge for later manufacturers. Compare the surface of a ceramic piece with the kind of material its form or decoration recalls.