Curated by students in Introduction to Museum Studies: Theory & Methods, this exhibition examines historic ceramic vessels and their technologies, artistry, and meanings. Specifically, it highlights molded Victorian jugs, vessels that were some of the highest quality and most popular and ubiquitous forms of the mid-19th century. These objects cross several important areas of study, including Victorian art and design, ornament drawn from popular culture (heroic myth, literature, history, and botanica), and improving technologies of molding. Their designs were praised and critiqued in art and design journals and, at their best, reached some of the pinnacles of decorative art.
IMAGE: Victorian molded jugs from the collection of Frank Horlbeck.