A strange carved resin vase Roman Greek Motif

Discussion in 'Antique Discussion' started by DeAnne, Apr 16, 2017.

  1. DeAnne

    DeAnne Well-Known Member

    I was hoping someone could help on this. I have seen a lot of carved resin vases before but this one has me stumped. For one the quality for two the motif. Any ideas at all I have spent hours searching the internet have not been able to come up with anything like it. Even guesses would be nice all it has done is give me a headache. TIA
     

    Attached Files:

    judy likes this.
  2. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    Are you sure it is carved? Looks like it came from a mold.
    It is probably a copy of a Roman or Neo-Classical cameo vase.
     
    Lucille.b and judy like this.
  3. Ownedbybear

    Ownedbybear Well-Known Member

    Greek, not Roman. I've a funny feeling the original is in the British Museum.
     
  4. Houseful

    Houseful Well-Known Member

    I sculpt and cast. This item would have been made from clay originally, (it takes ages to sculpt a bas relief), a silicone mold made plus outer casing, made from the clay original. The polyester resin would be mixed with whatever finish you wanted, ie marble dust, slate, granite etc poured into the mold and castings made. You don't carve resin, it absolutely stinks, it sets fairly quickly going from a liquid to jelly then sets rock hard. It's also bad for you to use it in enclosed areas, sends you dizzy and the catalyst used can blind you. No way would you sculpt and carve it. Agree with AJ it's a decorative piece in a Roman/Greek style.
     
    judy and Any Jewelry like this.
  5. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    It first made me think of the Portland Vase, which it isn't of course.
    The feet and pedestal look more Neo-Classicist than actual antiquity to me.
    Maybe it's because it is Easter, but it reminds me of white chocolate;).
     
  6. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    If you click on Full Image, your photos will appear in the post full size so we don't have to click on tiny links.
    IMG_0441.jpg
     
  7. Bev aka thelmasstuff

    Bev aka thelmasstuff Colored pencil artist extraordinaire ;)

    It looks like Diana, the Huntress. Not sure about the warriors with a prisoner, though. I can't find an image of Electra with a bow and arrow.
     
  8. DeAnne

    DeAnne Well-Known Member

    The reason I think it was carved is because there are areas where it does look rough. An the inside is pretty rough.
    I thought it might be molded at first to but then I started searching an searching, an I wasn't able to find anything even remotely close to it. You would think if it was molded from a cast I should be able to find another one.
    And then there is the quality it's much better than other resin pieces I have seen there is only about 4 teeny tiny air bubble holes.
    But I am not an expert that's why I am asking.
    Here are a few pics of close ups.
     
  9. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    Yes, the lady with the bow is probably Diana.
    Maybe it is not an actual copy of a Greek/Roman vase, but a composition using elements from several vases or friezes.
     
  10. DeAnne

    DeAnne Well-Known Member

  11. DeAnne

    DeAnne Well-Known Member

    And here are pics of all the way around it IMG_0462.JPG IMG_0463.JPG IMG_0464.JPG IMG_0465.JPG
     
  12. Ownedbybear

    Ownedbybear Well-Known Member

    It's an amphora shape, hence the "stand".
     
  13. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    If it were carved it wouldn't be rough. I think the areas that look rough are just the places where the resin didn't go all the way to the inside of the mold. I'm sure there is a technical phrase for it, Houseful probably knows.

    That's why I think it is Neo. Amphoras from antiquity were pointed so they could stand solidly in sand. For other situations they were fitted with separate stands, often in later times. This one has the stand incorporated in the design.
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2017
  14. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    By the way, the neck is too wide for an amphora, you'd need a very big stopper or during transport all the wine or oil would spill. But the base is too pointed for a pithos, which had a wider neck, but could stand. The pithos was for storage rather than transport.
    I think this mix is another sign of a Neo Classical origin.
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2017
    DeAnne likes this.
  15. DeAnne

    DeAnne Well-Known Member

    Thanks for all the input I really appreciate it. I guess this is one of those pieces I will never quite figure out.
    I am just baffled by the fact I can't find anything that even remotely resembles it.
     
  16. Houseful

    Houseful Well-Known Member

    Sometimes pieces don't sell that well or they are a pain to cast or you just don't think they represent your best work and you destroy the mold. Painters destroy and paint over their work too.
    As I said alto and bas relief takes time to do, often taking longer than sculpting in the 360 degrees round.The internet doesn't show everything out there so there may well be more that haven't surfaced yet.
     
    DeAnne likes this.
  17. all_fakes

    all_fakes Well-Known Member

    As Houseful mentioned, resin pieces are never hand-carved, but cast or molded.
    It can be quite hard to identify such items, as far as when/where made, because there generally are no books or online resources for souvenir-type items.
    This can lead to the idea that an item is rare or unique, even though presumably hundreds if not thousands of identical items were made - but that is simply because there are no resources or collector guides to cast-resin vases, or cast-resin totem poles, or whatever.
    For some types of items, the manufacturers may have an online catalog (for example, Panobo Sales, aka BOMA, has an online catalog of their resin totems and such; but that covers only a tiny fraction of all the resin totems made over the years).
    So you might try google searches such as "greek resin vase importer" in the hopes of finding such a catalog; and you could try a Google image search using a good cropped photo of your item. Maybe try the term urn, or amphora.
    However, I tried the image search and came up with only a lot of pictures of stone carvings, none of which were vases.
     
    Any Jewelry likes this.
  18. Khalil007

    Khalil007 New Member

    I have a similar vase and I would like to know more about it
     
  19. Khalil007

    Khalil007 New Member

    630951FE-00FD-4E53-A3B0-1EA146E0680E.jpeg This is the same
     
  20. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    Welcome @Khalil007 . Yes, yours is basically the same one, only it has colour applied, which seems to be partly worn off.

    These cast resin pieces are home decor. They became fashionable in the second half of the 20th century and are still made to this day.
     
    all_fakes and verybrad like this.
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