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Object Timeline

1993

  • We acquired this object.

2004

2015

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2024

  • You found it!

Wellspring Carafe

This is a Carafe. It was designed by Richard Redgrave and manufactured by J.F. Christy and produced by Sir Henry Cole (also known as Felix Summerly). It is dated 1842–1852 and we acquired it in 1993. Its medium is glass, vitreous enamel, gold. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Artist Richard Redgrave was the headmaster of the Government School of Design in London where he trained designers for industry and taught “art botany” to Christopher Dresser. Redgrave designed this carafe for Felix Summerly’s Art Manufactures, a company run by Henry Cole, who would work with Paxton on the Great Exhibition a few years later. The decoration follows the principles of design reform and
thus reflects the functionality of the object—the painted plants seem to emerge from a spring when the carafe is filled with water.

It is credited Museum purchase from Decorative Arts Association Acquisitions Fund in memory of Dona Guimaraes.

  • Vase (Netherlands)
  • glass, enamel.
  • Museum purchase from the Decorative Arts Association Acquisition and....
  • 1994-71-9

Our curators have highlighted 3 objects that are related to this one.

  • Sidewall (USA)
  • machine-printed paper.
  • Gift of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  • 1971-58-8-a,b
  • Frieze, Stamford
  • block-printed and stenciled paper.
  • Gift of Roger Warner.
  • 1955-144-5

Its dimensions are

H x diam.: 16.5 × 10.8 cm (6 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.)

Cite this object as

Wellspring Carafe; Designed by Richard Redgrave; Produced by Sir Henry Cole (also known as Felix Summerly); Manufactured by J.F. Christy; England; glass, vitreous enamel, gold; H x diam.: 16.5 × 10.8 cm (6 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.); Museum purchase from Decorative Arts Association Acquisitions Fund in memory of Dona Guimaraes; 1993-78-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Botanical Expressions and Shock of the Old: Christopher Dresser.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18646873/ |title=Wellspring Carafe |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=26 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>