Rare Aerial Blue vase showing a tiny ship in very rough seas, the work of William McDonald in 1894. Waves appear to be crashing on the shore under cloudy skies. Marks include the Rookwood logo, which indicates the date, shape number 741 C, Joseph Bailey’s number 273 bracketed by crescent moons, a wheel ground X, Cincinnati Art Museum acquisition numbers in red paint and McDonald’s incised initials. Height 5 5/8 inches. Fine overall crazing and perhaps Xed for being a little indistinct. Listed in Burt, “2,292 pieces of early Rookwood Pottery in the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1916” as item 21 on page 108. Two other Aerial Blue vases on the same shape are listed in Burt on that same page, noting one by Harriet Strafer as “this first of Aerial Blue-here clay body is colored blue,
wh(ite) slip dec(oration) & clear glaze.” Our vase also appears to be a blue or dark gray body with clear glaze.

Fine overall crazing, Xed, no apparent reason