Modernist Mid-Cent Vase - Kaolin /White Clay -Signed VV

Ok, one more try and my last. Here is a grey vase I have that is 12 inches high, beautifully done. They grey glaze looks simple until you inspect it closely and see beautiful earthen pink undertones and other interesting textures. I love the shape as well. I believe the vase is made, at least partially, of kaolin clay because it's the only piece I have with such a stark white color on the bottom. (But I'm no expert on clay types, just can generally discern it. Please correct me if someone here recognizes it as some other type of clay.) I don't know where this comes from. I bought it at an American flea-market, of items that had been found in storage from a large estate that had a lot of great examples of art, pottery, art deco glass and modern furniture.

There is a signature on the bottom done in dark blue glaze. it appears to be to be two letter "V"s but could be a "W" or a symbol. There is also a small incised mark that looks like a "6" or a swirl but this could just be part of the finished touches on the bottom - a deep cut part of the swirl line done on the base.



Signature on Bottom



I'm hoping for a miracle, because my batting average on this forum so far has been 0. Any help or input as always is very much appreciated. Also, I thank everyone on the forum who has looked at, and especially posted on the few ID threads I've posted. I hope I can be helpful to others here as time goes on because this is a great forum. Just reading old posts is helping me learn a lot.

The kaolin/white clay description seems fine as it looks like porcelain.

Don't be disheartened. The first pot I posted three years ago is still not identified. It's one of my favourites and I quite like the mystery.(Secretly I think its a thousand year old Chinese Mingei and now I don't want to be told it isn't.)

Your nice vase is porcelain and the swirl on the bottom is part of the throwing process. The chances are it was made by someone local to you so a more local search of routers and potteries may be fruitful.

Potters not routers.....

climberg64 wrote:Don't be disheartened. The first pot I posted three years ago is still not identified. It's one of my favourites and I quite like the mystery.(Secretly I think its a thousand year old Chinese Mingei and now I don't want to be told it isn't.)

Your nice vase is porcelain and the swirl on the bottom is part of the throwing process. The chances are it was made by someone local to you so a more local search of routers and potteries may be fruitful.

If only I could even do that, it was bought at a flea market by some guys who pulled in with a trailer full of boxes from another state. They told us they had bought out an abandoned large storage space at auction "up north." So where "local" is is anyone's ones guess. "Up North" from where I'm at means Philly, NYC, Boston, etc..so basically tens of millions of people with god only knows how many working potters in the last 50 years. The fact that the majority of the boxes from this space contained either German or Austrian produced art or goods, alongside a range of art deco and arts and crafts items only makes it worse.

I thought maybe the ID might be a tad more likely due to it being porecelain. It might be common in the UK but at least in my area I don't know any potters that work with koalin clay - its all stone or earthenware here.
Also, a small faint hope on the signature. I know the blue glaze isnt uncommon but that's the only studio piece I have that incorporates it.

Like I said in my OP, I figured it was a long shot but at least had to try.

NaomiM wrote:The monogram could be VV or VW. the '6' is just an artefact of manufacture. It's made by someone copying the Chinese style so there isn't enough 'individuality' in it to narrow down the potter - one only has the monogram and the fact it's porcelain. It might be a student piece; it might even be Chinese or Japanese. It's one of those pots where one is unlikely to ID it unless or until one comes across another, and that assumes the other has a label or provenance.
Still a nice item, though.

Thanks everyone, even general info like that is very helpful. Believe it or not I am a pretty decent researcher, but my specialities are in mcm furniture. (Also good with MCM glass). I've always found pottery an intimidating area because it is so vast - even commercially produced much less studio artists.

So I've basically just bought pieces I like, no other reason. But I'm not a fan of mysteries so I can't help but try. I have IDed a number of pottery pieces I have, but I posted all my hopeless mysteries here.

For a nice change of pace though I found a Bitossi Aldo Londi blue bull at the flea market today for $15 - I nearly fainted. Nice that for once I could instantly ID a piece and got it at a steal b/c the booth owner didn't. (Thank god the Raymor label was gone!) but as far as I'm concerned not being able to ID a piece of blue Rimini Bitossi is just plain laziness.