Imposing Hampshire vase with an unusually fine and subtle mottled gray glaze. 9 inches inches tall. Excellent condition. No chips or glaze slips. Several very fine hairlines on the bottom that do not go through.Marked Hampshire Pottery, with the number 55 and a circled M. Hampshire was founded in 1871 in Keene, NH by James Taft and produced majolica ware, often decorated with slip. Cadmon Robertson was hired to manage the production from1904- 1914 and was responsible for the shift to the arts and crafts aesthetic, introducing the signature, silky smooth glazes, particularly matte green, and often took inspiration from Grueby forms with vertical lily leaves interleaved with flower buds, sometimes colored yellow. Robertson designed many forms and experimented with hundreds of glazes. His designs were numbered and stamped with the letter M inside an O for his spouse Emoretta. The pottery was sold byTaft in 1916 after Robertson’s passing in 1914 to a former Grueby associate named George Morton who ran it only for a year. After WWI, the pottery made china for hotels and restaurants and closed in 1923.