Large and unusual Aesthetic Movement vase designed by Christopher Dresser for the Linthorpe Pottery c1880. Shouldered vase with tapering body and short everted rim. Finely mottled darker glaze over a cream ground and painted design of reeds and blossoms over water. The vase is decorated in the Anglo-Japanese style, of which Dresser was an early proponent after seeing displays of Japanese wears at the 1862 London International Exhibition and his subsequent visit to Japan in 1876-77. Incised mark for Linthorpe, design number 360 and facsimile mark for Chr Dresser. The vase is 34.5 cm in height. 
Provenance: from the Andrew McIntosh Patrick Collection, The Fine Art Society.
 
In 1879 John Harrison (a local businessman) established Linthorpe Pottery in conjunction with Christopher Dresser, one of the most influential designers of the late 19th century. Dresser acted as artistic director at the Pottery until 1882 and continued to submit designs whilst the Pottery remained in production. Dresser recommended Henry Tooth, an artist from Buckinghamshire working at that time on the Isle of Wight, as pottery manager. Henry Tooth, with no prior experience of clay or pottery left Ryde for Linthorpe, spending time at the T.G. Green pottery in Church Gresley, Derbyshire to get a foundation in ceramics. Henry Tooth had brought Richard Patey with him from the Isle of Wight, who managed the pottery after he left in 1882 (to establish to Bretby Pottery in partnership with William Ault). Linthorpe Pottery only being in existence between 1879 and 1889. 
Andrew McIntosh Patrick (son of Scottish artist James McIntosh Patrick) started his career at the prestigious Fine Art Society in 1954 when he also began collecting – acquiring most of his pieces from the gallery. During his 50-year tenure the gallery held ground-breaking exhibitions in key areas of Victorian decorative arts, including the seminal The Aesthetic Movement and the Cult of Japan exhibitions in the early 1970s – when he acquired his first pieces by Dr Christopher Dresser. Patrick subsequently loaned Dresser pieces from his collection to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Following his retirement as managing director, Patrick sold a significant part of his collection through the Fine Art Society in 2007.