The Home Beautiful: The Minton Prometheus Vase, 1867

The Prometheus Vase
Minton, 1867
This and all related images from:
The Victoria & Albert Museum

This rather substantial vase and cover were made specifically for the Paris International Exhibition of 1867 to demonstrate the technical and artistic superiority of their makers, Minton & Co. of Stoke-on-Trent.  Such an ambitious vase would have been made for such an exhibition as purchasing it would have been rather impossible for the average household.  Only museums and the wealthiest collectors could have afforded such a purchase, or, even had the room to display it.

This vase is actually one of a gigantic pair.  Each was painted with a different scene. Both were purchased by the V&A. 

The modeler of this vase was Victor Simyan (sometimes spelt Simian, and yes, I did just ook like a monkey when I typed this).  Simian was a French sculptor who moved to Britain in about 1860. The painter was a Thomas Allen who studied at the Stoke-on-Trent School of Design from 1849 and joined Minton's, staying there until 1875. 

Both vases were decorated in an imitation of maiolica, though the base is decorated with snakes in the manner of the 16th century French ceramicist, Bernard Palissy. According to the V&A, "The scenes on the bowl of the vase are taken from prints after works by the Rubens, The Calydonaian Boar Hunt, of which the original painting is now lost, and a second Boar Hunt, now in Marseilles. This vase and its companion took their name however from the cover, where Prometheus is having removed by an eagle, a punishment he was set by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and bringing it back to earth."