Vase, Fairyland lustre, designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones, manufactured by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Stoke-on-Trent, ca. 1920-41

Fairyland lustre vase, tall and slim, narrows at shoulders, slightly flaring at neck. The decoration is based on two Japanese myths. Kuan Yin, a Buddhist deity, poured water of creation over the earth - it fell in a series of bubbles and within each was a baby. The other concerning a Goddess who aided villagers terrorized by a dragon fond of eating children's flesh. Bubbles, fairies, city and figure riding on a boat/bird are depicted.

Daisy Makeig-Jones's fascination with fairies, following such illustrators as Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and the Danish artist, Kay Nielsen, proved very popular in the 1920s. Wedgwood have always produced a huge range of styles to capture different market tastes. The cosy drawing room and nursery atmosphere of the decoration of these works, and the monumental forms, contrast sharply with the modernist works being produced at Wedgwood's in the same period.

Targeting the luxury end of the market with these pieces, they represent one of Wedgwood's most extraordinary technical achievements in the ceramic industry. The richly coloured ornament of Fairyland Lustre was extremely popular throughout the 1920s as expensive collector's pieces. But by the 1930s the appeal of lustre was waning and the collapse of the American market had a noticable effect on the demand for ornamental wares. Fairyland was gradually phased out in the 1930s as Keith Murray and Norman Wilson were taken up. Fairyland was considered too expensive and old-fashioned.
[Susan McCormack, 'British Design at Home', p.113]

C.71-1988