Vase with "Old Bogey" pattern

Designer Christopher Dresser British, Scottish
Manufactory Minton(s) British

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 516

This vase shows Christopher Dresser’s prolific work on behalf of Minton, the largest industrial manufacturer of ceramics in Victorian England. This design was shown at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris. In his 1873 publication, The Principles of Decorative Design, Dresser described the strange horned and winged creature on this vase as "Old Bogey," which may allude to the fascination with the Occult that swept through Victorian England at the time. Indeed, "Old Bogey" was used as a term to refer to Satan, and could be found in the illustration of Eliphas Lévi’s book, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855).

#418. Christopher Dresser and the Birth of Industrial Design

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Vase with "Old Bogey" pattern, Christopher Dresser (British, Glasgow, Scotland 1834–1904 Mulhouse), Bone china, British

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