Title
Vase
Label
Vase with Little Eva Hanging a Garland of Flowers around Uncle Tom’s Neck
Made in Limoges, France, probably decorated in New York, New York, about 1860
Made of Hard-Paste Porcelain Museum Purchase with Funds
Provided by W. Groke Mickey
This vase, one of a pair, illustrates a key moment in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most influential attacks on slavery every written. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the best-selling American novels of the 19th century.
The vase shows Tom being draped in garlands of flowers by his owner’s daughter, Eva, capturing a moment of interracial friendship and reflecting Tom’s humanity and Christ-like nature.
Combining delicately sculpted figures, two different types of gilding and rich enamel decoration, this vase is a tour-de-force of the potter’s art. That a potter or retailer thought there was a market for such elaborate and expensive figures displaying an anti-slavery message suggests that by 1860, the abolition movement was winning the battle for the hearts and minds of American citizens.
The novel generated an outpouring of books, plays, music, prints, and objects. One reporter wrote that,
It should be noted among other favorable signs of the times, that artists, of all grades, now find it not only a congenial, but also a remunerative work to represent the creations of Mrs. Stowe’s genius in pictures and statues … they have an established market value, and that people of wealth and taste now begin to seek such works as the ornaments of their parlors and chambers. [ix]
SUPPORTING IMAGE
“Eva Dressing Uncle Tom” from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. London: John Cassell, 1852. Special Collections, Washington and Lee University
Made in Limoges, France, probably decorated in New York, New York, about 1860
Made of Hard-Paste Porcelain Museum Purchase with Funds
Provided by W. Groke Mickey
This vase, one of a pair, illustrates a key moment in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most influential attacks on slavery every written. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the best-selling American novels of the 19th century.
The vase shows Tom being draped in garlands of flowers by his owner’s daughter, Eva, capturing a moment of interracial friendship and reflecting Tom’s humanity and Christ-like nature.
Combining delicately sculpted figures, two different types of gilding and rich enamel decoration, this vase is a tour-de-force of the potter’s art. That a potter or retailer thought there was a market for such elaborate and expensive figures displaying an anti-slavery message suggests that by 1860, the abolition movement was winning the battle for the hearts and minds of American citizens.
The novel generated an outpouring of books, plays, music, prints, and objects. One reporter wrote that,
It should be noted among other favorable signs of the times, that artists, of all grades, now find it not only a congenial, but also a remunerative work to represent the creations of Mrs. Stowe’s genius in pictures and statues … they have an established market value, and that people of wealth and taste now begin to seek such works as the ornaments of their parlors and chambers. [ix]
SUPPORTING IMAGE
“Eva Dressing Uncle Tom” from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. London: John Cassell, 1852. Special Collections, Washington and Lee University
Citation
“Vase,” Museums at Washington and Lee University: Online Exhibits, accessed May 2, 2024, https://exhibits-museums.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/23.