Vase ca. 1885–89 Chelsea Keramic Art Works Steeped in ceramics from birth, Hugh C. Robertson pursued his craft with fierce devotion and a passion for experimentation. From a family of trained English ceramists, he honed his skills in New Jersey before settling in Massachusetts as one of the founders of Chelsea Keramic Art Works and later, Dedham Pottery. Robertson’s lifelong explorations in glazes, particularly their color and texture, make him one of the key figures of American art pottery at the turn of the twentieth the 1880s Robertson increasingly turned his attention to dev

Vase ca. 1885–89 Chelsea Keramic Art Works Steeped in ceramics from birth, Hugh C. Robertson pursued his craft with fierce devotion and a passion for experimentation. From a family of trained English ceramists, he honed his skills in New Jersey before settling in Massachusetts as one of the founders of Chelsea Keramic Art Works and later, Dedham Pottery. Robertson’s lifelong explorations in glazes, particularly their color and texture, make him one of the key figures of American art pottery at the turn of the twentieth the 1880s Robertson increasingly turned his attention to developing new glaze formulas and clay bodies. In the middle of the decade he became obsessed with the highly coveted yet elusive sang-de-boeuf, or oxblood, glaze, a quest that became the hallmark of his later career. This richly colored blood-red glaze is traditionally created from a copper-based formula and fired in a kiln, which when wet straw and other materials are introduced, deprives the atmosphere of oxygen and changes the copper-oxide glaze to a brilliant red color. While Chinese potters sporadically created the copper-red glaze in earlier centuries, it was not until the Ming Dynasty (1368– 1644) that ceramists refined the technique to yield consistently good color. However, production was disrupted shortly thereafter, and the secret lost. About 1680 the secret of copper-red glazes was regained, and its production continued through the eighteenth century. In April 1885 Robertson became the first American to successfully replicate the oxblood glaze. Justly proud of his accomplishment, he called the variations of his new glaze "Dragon’s Blood," "Sang de Chelsea," and "Robertson’s Blood." Robertson showcased his new oxblood glazes on the same Chinese-inspired shapes that he used for his monochrome glazes. This small, bottle-shaped is enveloped with a lustrous, almost iridescent sang-de-boeuf glaze. Similarly, the pottery’s double gourd and bulbous shapes, all str

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