French Limoges Vase 15.75” w Huge Pink Roses American Pickard Stouffer Artist Samuel Heap c 1905 - 1906

082113-1/RL-616

This is a tall cylindrical French Limoges hard paste porcelain vase, hand painted and signed by the artist Samuel Heap. The maker of the vase is Tressemann & Vogt. The Chicago decorating studio is J.H. Stouffer Company. The date is defined by the mark of the decorating studio and it is circa 1905 to 1906.

The vase is 15 ¾" high, 4 ¼" wide at the top, and 4 5/8" wide at the base.

Samuel Heap is a porcelain artist who was affiliated with both the Pickard China Studio and the Stouffer Studio. He arrived in Chicago to work for Pickard circa 1904 to 1905, but transferred to the Stouffer Company when it opened in 1905. As an artist, he is recognized for painting fruit and floral designs. This vase has to be one of the first pieces he finished when he went to work for Stouffer.

Some of Samuel Heap's work is shown in the book, "Collector's Encyclopedia of Pickard China" by Alan B. Reed. None of the work shown in the book is as grandiose as this tall vase.

The vase shows three large pink and white roses on the front of vase, touched with green; each rose is 3-4" high and 3-4" wide. If you look closely there is a pale yellow rose dangling towards the bottom. The back of the vase shows a single large pink rosebud. The signature of "S. Heap" is to the left of the rosebud.

The ground shades from burgundy to cream. Around the top of the rim there is a scroll-like band of painted gold with black lines, and on the front dangling to the left of the yellow rose is more of the same painted gold with black lines. The mouth and base is trimmed in gold.

There are no chips, nicks, cracks or crazing. There is some gold rubbing wear at the rim and base. The underside bottom shows some estate dirt accumulation. The inside of the vase is glazed white; the glaze doesn't quite reach the rim uniformly and it gives the rim an irregular look upon close scrutiny, however it is due to the maker and is not a defect. Other tiny manufacturer's imperfections at the rim were painted over by the artist.

The green maker's mark is T&V inside a box with Limoges France below. The red overglaze studio decorating mark is Hand J.H.S.Co. Painted.