Shepherd Boy Helping a Peasant Girl Across a Stream

Title: 
Shepherd Boy Helping a Peasant Girl Across a Stream

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Object Name: 
Vase
Title: 
Shepherd Boy Helping a Peasant Girl Across a Stream
Place Made: 
Accession Number: 
89.2.10
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 30.5 cm, Diam: 12.1 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
about 1880-1890
Credit Line: 
Gift of Juliette K. Rakow in memory of Leonard S. Rakow
Web Description: 
The scene depicts a shepherd boy helping a peasant girl across a stream. Cameo glasses made by Thomas and George Woodall and their contemporaries are not to everyone's taste. Critics find them cold and "academic," but admirers point to their technical mastery and their sensitive treatment of figures. The latter qualities can be observed on this vase, especially in the rendering of the boy's foot underwater. (see cameo glass in Stourbridge (89.2.11).
Department: 
Provenance: 
Rakow Estate, Juliette K. (Mrs. Leonard S.) (d. 1992), Source
1989-06-07
Inscription: 
THOMAS WEBB & SONS / GEM / CAMEO
Inscription
COLLECTION OF DR. & MRS. LEONARD S. RAKOW / CG - 27
Label
G. Woodall
Signature
Primary Description: 
Opaque white, transparent blue (two tints) and probably colorless glasses; blown, overlaid, etched, cameo-carved. Tall, ovoid shape; white overlay on dark blue (probably on colorless) on bright blue; the white and dark blue cameo-carved to produce the figures of a boy holding a girl in his arms, crossing a stream, one of the boy's feet on a rock, the other in the water; rocks and a grassy plant beside the stream; incised signature, "G. Woodall" (script), on a rock in the foreground; neck rim flared slightly, with two short, right-angle handles at either side; carved net on the neck, with stylized flowers at the intersections; the handles with carved stylized foliage and flowers, and leafy decorations at the joints with the body; on the reverse, a pendant flowering vine, with a bird flying above; rounded base with carved stiff leaves; flared foot with carved border of flowers; the bottom with ground foot rim and concave pontil mark, with acid-etched mark, "THOMAS WEBB & SONS" in an arc above "GEM / CAMEO"; printed circular paper collection label on the bottom, inscribed "COLLECTION OF DR. & MRS. LEONARD S. RAKOW / CG-27."
Cameo Glass: Masterpieces from 2000 Years of Glassmaking
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 1982-05-01 through 1982-10-31
Cameo glass, one of the most costly and difficult decorating techniques since first century B.C., is documented and illustrated in this catalog. Included are examples from Rome, Islam, and China, as well as English 19th-century masterpieces by John Northwood and George Woodall among others. For the purposes of this catalog, the term “cameo glass” is used to refer to cased glass objects with two or more differently colored layers. The outer layer is usually an opaque or opalescent white, and the outer layer or layers have been carved in to leave the decoration standing in relief against a body of contrasting color. Shading is produced by thinning down the carved layer; highlights are created where the glass is left thickest. Both this catalog, and the exhibition for which it was created, documents the 2000-year cameo glass tradition.
The 2012 Portland Vase Project: Recreation of a Masterpiece (2012) illustrated, p. 26, top center; BIB# 131722
A Passion for Glass (1982-01) p. 70; BIB# AI29846
Cameo Glass: Masterpieces from 2000 Years of Glassmaking (1982) illustrated, pp. 78, 115, #72; BIB# 30609
Craftsmanship for the Wealthy: The Cameo Glass of Thomas Webb (1972-02) pp. 74, 75;