THE BRITISH MUSEUM ACQUIRES 'SHOKA VASE' BY HITOMI HOSONO

We are delighted to announce that the British Museum have acquired Shoka Vase, by Hitomi Hosono.

The vase takes its form from the revered Portland Vase and now sits in a cabinet alongside an 18th Century 'copy' made by Josiah Wedgwood. Hosono designed and worked with the master craftsmen at Wedgwood to make an edition of five jasperware Shoka Vases. The original Roman cameo-glass version and Josaiah Wedgwood's vases are decorated with figures in a landscape; however, the exact scene has remained something of an enigma. Hosono's porcelain vase is clad with an abundance of overlapping ferns that envelop the surface. The Japanese title Shoka means 'sublimation' and speaks to how ideas can develop over centuries through being interpreted and re-interpreted by people of different cultures and from different times.