Plaster plaque depicting a milkmaid by C.F.A Voysey (1857-1941), ca. 1920

Plaster plaque depicting a milkmaid, by C.F.A Voysey (1857-1941), ca. 1920

Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014

Charles Voysey (1857-1941) was a renowned English architect and prolific arts and crafts designer of furniture, textiles and wallpaper. His connections with leading figures of the Arts and Crafts movement, such as William Morris (1834-1896) and Edward Schroeder Prior (1857-1932), makes his work vital in the context of assembling a comprehensive and internationally significant Arts and Crafts collection. As one of the first people to understand and appreciate the significance of industrial design, and celebrated for his controlled simplicity of country house design, Voysey’s output has long enhanced the V&A’s extensive general holdings of Arts and Crafts material.

This tile was produced by Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Co. Ltd (1891-1957) who commissioned other Arts and Crafts designers in addition to Voysey, including Walter Crane (1845-1915) and Lewis F. Day (1845-1910), both of whom are also well represented in the V&A’s collections. The milkmaid and cow depicted are analogous to a Voysey textile, The House that Jack Built, for which the V&A has the original 1929 design (inv. no. E.332-1974).

A.5-2014