Lady with Hat by Bjørn Wiinblad: A Vase with a Face

Most vases are containers that step back and let the flowers speak. Bjørn Wiinblad's Lady with Hat works the other way round: the vase is a figure, and whatever you put in it becomes part of her outfit. This piece looks at how the series is built, what separates the three vase sizes and the candle holder, and how to give each one the room it needs.

Wiinblad and his hats

Bjørn Wiinblad (1918–2006) is one of the most recognisable Danish decorative artists of the twentieth century. He drew, painted, threw and modelled, and he worked for decades from the Blue House in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, where his studio and archive were kept. His figures are rarely quiet. They wear crowns, ruffs, flowers and, above all, hats.

The archive holds countless examples of hatted figures, and the hats are never small or polite. They are large, opulent and sculptural, closer to architecture than millinery. The Lady with Hat series takes that habit and turns it into something you can use: the hat is not an ornament perched on top of a vase, it is the vase's mouth.

All four pieces are glazed ceramic with hand-painted decoration, which gives each figure a lively, drawn quality. The pose stays the same across the family. The lady stands with a structured skirt, raises both hands and holds on to a hat that climbs upwards like a small tower.

The brim is the opening

The clever part of the design is where the water goes. The top of the hat is open, so the brim doubles as the rim of the vase. Stems drop down through the crown of the hat into the body, and what rises above the brim reads as trimming: a plume, a corsage, a spray of feathers. The flowers literally become the hat.

That changes how you arrange. A tight, round posy sitting low on the brim makes her look like she is wearing a bonnet of blooms. A few tall, loose stems (sweet pea, cosmos, a single branch of blossom) turn the hat into something theatrical and leaning, which suits Wiinblad's taste for excess. Because the figure already carries so much colour and pattern, it pays to keep the bouquet to one or two flower types and let one colour from the glaze repeat in the petals.

A practical point: the hat tapers as it rises, so the opening is narrower than the body below. Trim stems cleanly and add them one at a time rather than forcing in a pre-tied bunch. The decoration is hand-painted, so care is simple and gentle: wipe the outside with a damp cloth and wash by hand. The pieces are not dishwasher safe.

Three vases and a candle holder

The series is not one shape scaled up and down. Each size has its own colourway and its own pattern logic, so choosing between them is as much about character as about height.

The Lady with hat Vase H20.5 cm blue is the most graphic of the three. The skirt is drawn in straight, disciplined lines, and the hat answers with circles, so the figure reads as a contrast between order below and play above. At 20.5 cm it sits comfortably on a bookshelf or a windowsill and wants a short, generous bunch.

The Lady with hat Vase H24.5 cm green flips the idea. Here the circles move down to the skirt and the hat is checked, which gives her a slightly more tailored look. The extra 4 cm of height and the wider 17 x 15 cm footprint make it the better choice for a dining table, where a taller arrangement still needs to leave sightlines clear across the table.

Living with the 50 cm Lady

The Lady with hat Vase H50 cm pink is a different proposition. At 50 cm tall she stops being a table object and becomes a piece of furniture scale, and the decoration covers her from the hem of the skirt to the top of the hat. She needs to be placed, not just put down.

Start with the floor. A footprint of 23.5 x 22 cm is modest, but the height means she should stand on a level, solid surface: a stone or wooden floor, a low plinth, or a deep sideboard where she will not be brushed by passing hips or swinging doors. Keep her out of the main walking line through a room and away from the arc of a door.

Then give her air. A figure this decorated looks best with plain space on either side, roughly her own width or more, and a calm wall behind. Set against busy wallpaper or a crowded gallery wall, the hand-painted detail turns into noise. Against a single colour, especially one picked from her own glaze, it becomes the point of the room.

Think about the arrangement as sculpture too. With 50 cm of figure already standing, a few long branches or a loose armful of tall stems can take the overall height towards a metre or more, so check the ceiling line, shelves and pendant lamps above before you fill her. Topping up water is easier when the vase is placed where you can reach the brim without lifting her.

The candle holder and grouping the family

The smallest member, the Lady with hat Candle holder H16 cm pink, keeps the same pose, with the hat as a mini tower she balances with her hands. Here the top of the hat holds a candle instead of stems. Pink dominates, with green, yellow and blue details that tie it back to the vases. It takes white or coloured, straight or twisted candles, and when it is not lit it can hold a single dried flower, so the hat idea carries over even without a flame.

Grouping works because the figures share a pose and a palette but not a single colour. A blue and a green vase side by side read like two guests at the same party; add the pink candle holder in front and you have a small scene at three heights (16, 20.5 and 24.5 cm). Stagger them slightly in depth rather than lining them up, and fill only one of the vases with flowers so the faces stay visible. The 50 cm piece is best left to stand alone, perhaps with the candle holder nearby as a quiet echo of the same character in miniature.

If you are drawn to the idea of a vase with a personality, Wiinblad's other face vases follow the same thinking with different women; our comparison of Eva, Olga, Nina and Titania sets them side by side. To see the Lady with Hat alongside glass, porcelain and other ceramic designs, browse our full Vases & Plant Pots collection.