This large vase is a masterpiece of the American art pottery movement, which began at the Rookwood Pottery, where this work was made, and was dedicated to the creation of ceramics for purely aesthetic and decorative purposes. Always trying to develop new styles of ware and decoration, by 1900 Rookwood's innovative designers and potters had perfected what they called the "Black Iris" glaze, characterized by a brilliant black ground painted with delicate floral motifs. This vase, which was decorated by the Japanese-born Kataro Shirayamadani, who was brought to Rookwood in 1887 to inject the influence of Japanese technique, was part of the "Black Iris" line of ceramics that was introduced with great success at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. It features a dark, high-gloss black glaze combined with dark green and decorated with yellow-green roses and green foliage executed in very slight relief. Martha C. Halpern, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 294.