Frederick Vodrey (1845 - 1897) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

businessman from

Wolstanton Wolstanton is a suburban town on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. History The Roman road the Rykeneld Street passed through Wolstanton. Wolstanton is mentioned in the Norman Domesday book where it is listed amongst the ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

who emigrated to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

sometime in the late 19th century. He is thought to be a cousin of

Jabez Vodrey Jabez Vodrey (1795–1861) was the first English potter to emigrate to and work west of the Appalachian Mountains. Early years Vodrey was born on January 14, 1795 in Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall, an area in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Thi ...

, a potter who emigrated from Staffordshire to the

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in 1820. On 9 November 1891 Frederick Vodrey married Annie Margaret Cuthbert in the Presbyterian Church in

Bray, County Wicklow Bray ( ) is a coastal town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated about south of Dublin city centre on the east coast. It has a population of 32,600 making it the ninth largest urban area within Ireland (at the 2016 census). Bray is ...

, Ireland. They had three children: Frederick Cuthbert Vodrey, Eileen Evelyn Vodrey and Harold Robert Vodrey.

Dublin pottery

Beginning in 1872, Vodrey operated Vodrey Pottery in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and sold his ware at a nearby storefront. The pottery's output was art ware:

ewer In American English, a pitcher is a container with a spout used for storing and pouring liquids. In English-speaking countries outside North America, a jug is any container with a handle and a mouth and spout for liquid – American "pitchers" wil ...

vase A vase ( or ) is an open container. It can be made from a number of materials, such as ceramics, glass, non-rusting metals, such as aluminium, brass, bronze, or stainless steel. Even wood has been used to make vases, either by using tree species ...

jardiniere ''Jardinière'' is a French word, from the feminine form of "gardener". In English it means a decorative flower box or "planter", a receptacle (usually a ceramic pot or urn) or a stand upon which, or into which, plants (often in pots) may be pla ...

s, and so on. Despite having been reared around the rich English pottery tradition of the Staffordshire area, Vodrey had no particular training as a potter. Instead, he was an astute businessman who was skilled at cultivating talented artists and designers. Vodrey's pottery offered a wide array of goods, ranging from very plain to very fine, thus ensuring that customers of all income levels could afford his work. Vodrey was friendly with a number of artists from the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club, and often gave its members blanks (undecorated, unglazed pieces) so that they could decorate the pieces themselves. These finished products—often whimsically, exuberantly decorated in the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

style—were then sold in Vodrey's store.

Acclaim for his work

Vodrian ware first came to wide public notice at the 1882 Dublin Exhibition, where it earned a merit award. The Exhibition had been launched with the specific intent of drawing attention to, and nurturing, Ireland's "home industries and manufactures." Vodrey capitalized on this interest by advertising that his ware was produced using only Irish

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

s. Vodrian pieces were simple in form and were particularly praised for their rich, highly-pigmented glazes. The pottery's striking red glaze in particular won admiring comparisons to traditional

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oxblood glaze Sang de boeuf glaze, or sang-de-boeuf, is a deep red colour of ceramic glaze, first appearing in Chinese porcelain at the start of the 18th century. The name is French, meaning " ox blood" (or cow blood), and the glaze and the colour sang de boeu ...

. Many of Vodrey's pieces bore clear Celtic and Gaelic design influence. Others echoed

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and Classical design. Vodrey is generally acknowledged as a leader in this era's resurgence of interest and pride in Irish arts and crafts. Dublin's

National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann) is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has thre ...

has dozens of Vodrey's pieces on permanent display at the Decorative Arts & History facility at

Collins Barracks Collins Barracks ( ga, Dún Uí Choileáin) is a former military barracks in the Arbour Hill area of Dublin, Ireland. The buildings now house the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History. Previously housing both British Arm ...

References

External links

National Museum of Ireland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vodrey, Frederick 1845 births 1897 deaths English potters English emigrants to Ireland People from Wolstanton