Imperial Amphora | Turn-Teplitz, Bohemia | Art Nouveau Putto & Basket Centrepiece Bowl | Earthenware | c.1900–1918

The Amphora factory understood that the surface of a ceramic object could be a landscape — and this piece, with its tumbling roses, woven basket and recumbent putto, inhabits that understanding fully.

The Amphora factory — formally Riessner, Stellmacher & Kessel — was established at Turn-Teplitz in Bohemia in 1892, operating within the Austro-Hungarian Empire at a moment when the decorative arts of the region were undergoing a transformation of remarkable creative energy. The factory produced earthenware of extraordinary ambition and variety, ranging from vases with naturalistic surface modelling to large decorative centrepieces of the kind represented by this piece — objects that combined sculptural figuration with vessel form in a manner that was entirely characteristic of the Art Nouveau movement at its most exuberant. The "Imperial Amphora" mark places this piece within the factory's premium production line, reserved for pieces of higher quality and greater decorative complexity. Amphora earthenware from the Turn-Teplitz period is collected internationally and commands serious attention in the Art Nouveau ceramic market.

The piece takes the form of a large open basket, the body modelled in a detailed wicker weave and glazed in warm ochre and green tones. A recumbent putto — a chubby, wingless infant figure in the classical tradition — drapes itself across the front and side of the basket, one arm extended and resting among a mass of applied roses that spill across the basket's rim and upper body. The roses are modelled individually and applied in quantity, glazed in pink and cream with a naturalistic, almost tactile quality. A large bow in relief is applied to the right side of the basket. The overall glaze palette is soft and matte in character — the putto in a warm yellow-green, the basket in tan and ochre, the roses in blush pink and white — consistent with the subdued, naturalistic colouring favoured by the Amphora factory in its figural centrepiece production.

There are no chips, cracks or damage to the body, the applied roses or the putto figure. The piece is in excellent condition throughout.

Key Details

• Maker: Imperial Amphora (Riessner, Stellmacher & Kessel)
• Factory Location: Turn-Teplitz, Bohemia (Austro-Hungarian Empire)
• Style: Art Nouveau
• Form: Centrepiece basket bowl with applied putto and roses
• Material: Earthenware
• Mark: Imperial Amphora
• Period: c.1900–1918
• Condition: Excellent

An object this elaborately conceived and this carefully preserved arrives in the present having survived both the century that made it and the one that followed — which is not nothing.