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Small globular vessel: C.9-2017

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Small globular vessel

Maker(s)

Potter: Mommens, Ursula

Entities

Categories

Description

Stoneware, thrown, with dark brown tenmoko glaze

Small, two handled globular vase with narrow bottle neck. The two small loop handles sit high on the shoulder and curl up to the top of the neck, which is slightly everted. The surface outside and inside the neck is slightly ridged from the throwing. The surface is coated in a rich brown tenmoko (temmoku) glaze, thinly applied around the rims and in one ‘fingerprint’ patch, where the colour is terracotta. The sides of the base have been turned and resist coated, leaving a thin, unglazed band. The underside is flat and undecorated.

Notes

History note: Bequeathed by David Hall, former Deputy Librarian to the University Library.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by David Hall

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 13.4 cm
Height: 12.8 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Newhaven ⪼ Sussex ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (2017-01-23) by Hall, David

Dating

20th Century, Late#
21st Century, Early
Circa 1950 CE - Circa 2010 CE

Note

Ursula Mommens (née Darwin,1908-2010), born in Cambridge, was a great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin and a descendant of Josiah Wedgwood; at school she learned music from Gustav Holst. Inspired by a pottery demonstration at the Ideal Home Exhibition, she studied first with Dora Billington at the Central School of Art and Design and then with William Staite Murray at the Royal College of Art before establishing her own pottery in Kent. In 1935 she moved to London, but after her pottery there was destroyed by wartime bombing she worked with Michael Cardew at both Winchcombe and Wenford Bridge. She believed in making pots that people could use. Her early work was vibrantly coloured earthenware; later she worked sometimes in porcelain but mainly stoneware, using iron and wood ash glazes, sometimes with incised or painted foliate or fish motifs. Mommens, who lived to the age of 101, was married to the artist and poet Julian Trevelyan RA from 1935-50 and the sculptor Norman Mommens, c.1952-62.

Components of the work

Decoration composed of glaze ( dark brown tenmoko)

Materials used in production

Stoneware

Techniques used in production

Throwing : Stoneware, thrown and glazed

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: square seal, indecipherable

  • Location: Side of base
  • Method of creation: Impressed stamp
  • Type: Mark
  • Text: U. MOMMENS
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Rectangular paper label handwritten in black ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.9-2017
Primary reference Number: 214063
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 7 February 2017 Updated: Tuesday 25 June 2019 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Small globular vessel" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/214063 Accessed: 2024-11-26 01:02:20

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/214063 |title=Small globular vessel |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-26 01:02:20|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-214063

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