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Dessert plate from ‘Garden’ series (deckchair)
Factory:
Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd
Designer:
Ravilious, Eric William
Earthenware plate, printed underglaze in black and painted overglaze in yellow enamel.
Cream-coloured earthenware decorated with lithographed print. Circular with a narrow, slightly concave rim, curved sides, and flat centre. Decorated in the centre with a vignette of a woman holding a book while sitting in a deckchair, to the left of a tree. A shopping basket on wheels stands on the right in the shadow of the tree. On the rim there are nineteen overlapping lengths of twisted, striped, ribbon, with a broad yellow band on the inner edge.
History note: 'Gabor Cossa' Antiques, Trumpington Street, Cambridge
Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, purchased from Gabor Cossa Antiques
Diameter: 23.3 cm
Height: 2.0 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (2001-01-22) by The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum
20th Century, Mid#
Elizabeth II
Production date:
AD 1954-03
Eric Ravilious (1903-42) studied engraving, illustration and colour printing at the Royal College of Art and by 1926-28 was exhibiting watercolours, producing book illustrations and commissioned to paint murals. In 1930 he married Eileen Lucy "Tirzah" Garwood (1908-1951) also a noted artist and engraver. From around 1936, he became one of Wedgwood’s most prolific freelance designers, although many of his designs were not produced in quantity until after World War II, during which he was killed while serving as a war artist with the Royal Marines. Wedgwood had revived the use of engraved designs in the mid 1930s – a mode of decoration which allowed the artist’s own work and ‘hand-writing’ to be reproduced in a factory setting, and well suited to Ravilious’ style.
Ravilious produced at least seven Wedgwood tableware pattern series, each with a number of vignettes on a single everyday theme, and sometimes also drew the tableware shapes for additions such as jam-pots. ‘Garden’, introduced in 1938 and also produced in the 1950s, used lithography on earthenware, with enamel wash bands of yellow, blue or green; four of the nine original drawingss - including with the deckchair - are shown in Batkin. The design was also produced without the printed centre image. A comparable dinner service with ‘Travel’ design sold for £17 3s 6d in the early 1950s. Ravilious also designed commemorative wares, including a Coronation Mug for Edward VIII (1936), later adapted for the coronations of both George VI and Elizabeth II; a mug celebrating the company’s relocation to Barlaston (1939); and a ‘Boat Race Day’ bowl, cup and stand (1938). Earlier designs were engraved at the factory from Ravilious’ drawings, but the ‘Boat Race’ images were lithographs drawn by Ravilious himself for direct application to the ware.
Decoration
composed of
enamel
( yellow)
Lithographs
Paint
Inscription present: over circular factory back stamp
Inscription present: circular mark, 'WEDGWOOD / MADE IN ENGLAND' in the centre
Inscription present: with indistinct red enamel numbers (259?) painted over it
Accession number: C.3-2001
Primary reference Number: 20885
Entry form number: 150
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Dessert plate from ‘Garden’ series (deckchair)" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/20885 Accessed: 2024-11-24 22:10:43
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/20885
|title=Dessert plate from ‘Garden’ series (deckchair)
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-24 22:10:43|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-20885
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<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa6/C_3_2001.jpg"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dessert plate from ‘Garden’ series (deckchair)</figcaption>
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