Small Aurora Egg Vase in Chinese Blue
A glaze that was lost for 60 years
The glaze on this vase was gone for sixty years. Ben Owen Sr. developed Chinese Blue at Jugtown Pottery in the 1930s — copper mixtures fired to 2,250 degrees, arriving at a blue that moves between turquoise and oxblood depending on where the flame touched it. Production stopped in 1947 and the formula went with it. Owen rebuilt it from memory. His grandson still uses that recovered recipe.
Chinese Blue pieces are wood-fired and set at the center of the kiln, the hottest place in it, where the color comes up richest. Often it takes two firings to get there.
The form is just as old. An egg — full at the shoulder, drawn in at the neck, borrowed from early Chinese vases and thrown by three generations of Ben Owens in Seagrove, North Carolina. It is a shape that holds a single branch better than it holds a bouquet, and it does not need either one to earn the table it sits on.
The color develops differently in every firing. What you see in the photograph is the piece you'll receive. Signed by hand, 2026 firing.
4"w x 6"h.
A form three generations have thrown
No Other Vase Like It
The neck decides the arrangement
Specifications
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No Two are Alike
It passes the empty test
Signed by hand, dated by year
The maker
Ben Owen
The rest of this release
Before you buy
Each piece is packed by hand and shipped insured. If anything arrives damaged, we replace it or refund you in full — send us a photograph and we'll take it from there.
Yes. Send it back within 14 days of delivery and we'll refund it. Because these are made by hand, expect variation in finish, color and size from piece to piece — that isn't a fault, it's the work.
Then it's gone. Every piece in a Short List release is one of one, and we don't reorder. Joining the list is how you hear about the next one first.