'Be Aware My Friend’ vase No.2 (view 1 of 2)
Mishapen slip-cast vase with naive decoration incised by an unaccomplished hand.
In cutting the design, the decorator pressed a little too hard, pushing the rim slightly out of shape.
The vase has incised fern decoration, together with an incised crescent moon, both of which are known on Salopian incised ware. Intriguingly, there is an inscription incised around the rim which reads:
BE AWARE MY FRIEND / BE STILL MY FRIEND.
This intriguing vase raises the same questions as vase No.1, and the explanation for it is the same.
Unlike vase No.1, this vase has a second inscription, BE STILL MY FRIEND, which bears some similarity to the Methodist hymn “Be Still, My Soul” (United Methodist Hymnal 534), which has the line "Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heav’nly Friend”.
This vase has been decorated by a different hand from vase No.1.
Mark: Unmarked
Height: 100mm / 4in
Provenance: (1) Private collection Wellington, Shropshire, UK (to late 1980s); (2) R&S Edmundson Collection, UK (to 2015); (3) Private collection, UK