Genie Vase in Chinese Blue

The ceramic glaze color that was almost lost to time...

The form is a miniature of Ben Owen III's classic genie bottle: a round body closed down to a straight narrow neck and a small flared collar. Bottles are among the harder things to make on a wheel. You raise a wide belly, then collar it slowly inward until the opening is narrower than your wrist, and past a certain point you are shaping it from the outside alone, with no hand inside to push against. Ben has called bottles some of his favorite pieces to throw. They are favorites because they are difficult.

The glaze is copper, fired to 2,250 degrees, where it reacts to the smoke and flame in the kiln. Chinese Blue was first developed at Jugtown Pottery in the 1930s. After Jacques Busbee died, his wife Juliana asked that it no longer be made, and the recipe was lost. It stayed with Ben Owen Sr., who spent years trying to get back to it and arrived at a recipe of his own. That version passed down through the family, and Ben Owen III still works in his.

Bottles were made for centuries to hold things. This one is 5.75 inches tall and holds almost nothing, which is rather the point. It goes on a bedside table, a kitchen windowsill, a shelf of small objects that mean something. It is also the least expensive signed piece by him we carry — a real way to give someone work by a potter whose pieces are in the Smithsonian.

Hand-signed by Ben Owen III, 2026. 3.75"w x 5.75"h.

See all five pieces in this release →