RAVILIOUS: WEDGWOOD CERAMICS
We are delighted to offer this single-owner collection of Ravilious ceramics which have been accumulated over a considerable period. These desirable objects are highly satisfying and affordable pieces of art and design created by one of the most original British artists of the 1930s.
Ravilious’s brilliance as a designer sings out in every detail of these pieces. Each vignette is a miniature masterpiece - stylish, witty, charming and offering glimpses of life at the end of the 1930s. The Travel series features emblems of modernity - ocean liners, aeroplanes and steam trains. The Garden series is devoted less to the tasks but more to the pleasures of the English garden - gathering apples, reading in a deckchair, diving into a swimming pool on a hot day. Ravillious provided all the vignettes and decorative borders to Wedgwood and the system of production was intricate and time consuming. The vignettes were printed as etchings and then fired onto the ceramic base. The resulting black and white designs on the fired ceramic were then painted with colour and refired. Some were subsequently painted again on top of the glaze after this firing. Robert Upstone |