The Jubilee Gestalt Vase



queens_speech_1.jpg

Perhaps the strangest of the many products made to commemorate the Queens Silver Jubilee in 1977 was this vase. It borrows from the Rubin Vase Illusion, devised by the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin in which we are not sure if we are looking at a vase or at two faces staring at each other.

Here though the illustration becomes a 3D vase featuring the profile of the Queen on one side and Prince Phillip on the other. As you follow the contours around the vase, one profile morphs seamlessly into the other which means the vase is has the strangest asymmetry.

What an object! Where a traditional, decorative object is warped by monarchist narrative using a Gestalt psychology technique. It's best viewed in this video.

From Grand Illusions via Things

Posted by sam at January 12, 2007 9:03 PM



Comments:

I'VE GOT ONE OF THESE - BOXED, WITH CERTIFICATE, WHICH I BOUGHT DIRECT FROM FROM KAISER PORCELAIN AT THE NEC SPRING FAIR IN 1977 - WHERE IT WAS A STAR EXHIBIT. ANY IDEA OF IT CURRENT VALUE?

CHRISTOPHER

Posted by: CHRISTOPHER on September 12, 2007 9:46 PM

No idea Christopher -

But if you wanted to get rid of it, let me know!

Sam

Posted by: sam on September 12, 2007 11:58 PM

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