A Berlin Iron Warwick Vase

Berlin, Germany
Circa 1830

This large Berlin iron vase is a copy of a colossal carved marble vase discovered at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli in 1711 by the Scottish antiquary Gavin Hamilton. Hamilton had it restored and sold the vase to the Earl of Warwick who did not license copies of the vase until the 1820’s. In June of 1826, Karl Friedrich Schinkel saw copies of the vase at the Birmingham factory of Sir Edward Thompson. That same year one of these copies was sent to Berlin, where it was modeled in reduced sizes by August Wilhelm Stilarsky. An example was shown at the Berlin Academy in 1828. The original vase remained at Warwick Castle until 1985 when it was acquired by Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries. A nearly identical vase on a pedestal is illustrated in the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts catalog, Cast Iron from Central Europe, 1800-1850, Fig. 19, page 69.

Cast iron
Height: 15 ⅝” Width: 14 ½” Depth: 10 ½”
S1068