| " «All I know is that I know nothing», an expression that, for a long time, has been attributed to Socrates. A very fitting quote. As art historians, over decades, we have been accumulating knowledge about art, arts and crafts and design and still can be completely mystified by an object. For example, this beautiful earthenware vase. A tall baluster form with c-shaped handles, a sculptural snake wrapped around it, its ground imitating foliage by means of its pastose glazing, thus underlining the naturalistic aspect of the vase even more. The question remains: Who made it? The mark cannot shed light on its authorship. It's too blurry, cannot be deciphered, in spite of strenuous research. So, next step: The region: Is it a French work? Or rather British? Rendering, shape and technique exhibit certain similarities to works by Bernard Palissy, a French ceramist of the 16th century, whose technique still found many imitators, especially in the United Kingdom, in the 19th and even 20th century. After most diligent research, perusing exhibition catalogues and monographs and extended online research, we finally stumbled across a series of similar ceramic pieces that were exhibited at the Société des Artistes Français in 1902-04, and finally concluded that our vase must have come into being in the surroundings of Stanislas-Louis-Auguste Schneit. Still, life and further work of the artist remain in the dark." |
