-
Plate
Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co. - Enlarge image
Plate
- Place of origin:
Cauldon, England (made)
- Date:
ca. 1875-1885 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co. (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
White earthenware, printed
- Museum number:
C.216-1984
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125e, case 4
Object Type
Traditional blue and white ceramics from China and Japan were enthusiastically collected by adherents of Aestheticism. More generally, although Japanese images were popular, the genuine artefact or image was often misinterpreted or adopted at several removes from the original. The design of this transfer-printed pattern includes an owl, a bird not immediately associated with Japan. However, the asymmetrical arrangement was generally recognised as in Japanese taste. The design name, as marked in the reverse of the plate, is 'Andalusia'. The irrelevance of name to pattern was common in Victorian ceramics; indeed, relevance was extremely uncommon.
People
Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co. operated at the Cauldon Place works, Hanley, establised in about 1802 by Job Ridgway. By the 1870s the company was one of the largest in the area, with over 1000 employees. It made a wide variety of table and toilet wares in earthenware and porcelain, and ornamental Parian, eggshell porcelain and majolica wares, and it supplied both the British and Russian Royal families.
