I took a little trip to the Dubuque Museum of Art in Iowa to escape a rain storm and discovered an interesting art nouveau ceramics art exhibit.
This collection of ceramic art focused on older art nouveau pieces that combined animals and functional ceramic together. This crab vase is a good example of that, quite unusual for the time period where most ceramics were functional and only decorated with paint.
Here is a crab box to go along with the vase. It was made circa 1895 designed by Erik Nielsen.
Here is another functional animal shaped ceramic object. This is a bat shaped wall pocket designed by Christian Thomsen in 1900.
These insect figurines are less functional and more decorative. These dragonflies and moth were designed by Anna Pedersen in 1900.
Here is a lumpsucker fish figurine. This is another design by Erik Nielsen made in 1894.
This is an eelpout figurine designed in 1889 by Carl Liisberg. These could work as a hilarious looking paperweight. In the right lighting the shine of this ceramic finish mimics a wet looking eel laying on a table.
Here is a codfish figurine with raised gills designed by Carl Liisberg in 1886. Little did Carl know a hundred years later people would be making similar looking figurines with sound boxes in them that would dance on the wall with a motion activated camera.
This was one of my favorites from the exhibit. This is a centipede vase designed in 1899 by an unknown artist. I love the way they composed the centipede shape on the vase.
Another favorite of mine was this mouse vase. I like the subtle blue gradient as well with the bright highlight on the rat figure at the top. This was designed by Carl Mortensen in 1889.
I have a few more examples from this exhibit for another post. Thanks for looking :-)