Irish Art Pottery opens a door onto an unexplored world; where, against a backdrop of controversy about James Whistler's exhibition of paintings at the Dublin Sketching Club, changes in social attitudes led to the beginning of women's education and recognition of artisans' rights. Ceramic training was introduced at the Queen's Institute (QI) in the 1870s. Classes were taught by Herbert Cooper and promoted by the retailer W.H. Kerr, reflecting the trend for hand-painted porcelain. Art pottery was made in response to demand from consumers influenced by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Increased demand for household furnishings due to suburban expansion, prompted Arnott's department store to open a separate premises. Vodrey Dublin Pottery nearby catered for the Aesthetic taste, producing brightly colored earthenware ceramics for the home during the 1880s.

Frederick Vodrey's collaboration with artists Mary Redmond and Charles Russell, and his association with curators at the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), gives valuable new insights into cultural life during the Celtic Revival. This catalogue documents the National Museum's collection of Vodrey Dublin Pottery and ceramics hand-painted by Herbert Cooper and his students at the Queen's Institute. It illustrates functional and ornamental objects ranging from tea and coffee sets, mustache cups and dessert plates, to bulb pots, jardinières, vases, and ornamental plaques, reflecting fashionable taste in home decoration of the middle and upper classes in Dublin during the late nineteenth century.