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Heroes Bearded and Beardless
Richard Redgrave, born 1804 - died 1888 - Enlarge image
Heroes Bearded and Beardless
- Object:
Shaving mug
- Place of origin:
Etruria, England (made)
- Date:
1848 (designed)
- Artist/Maker:
Richard Redgrave, born 1804 - died 1888 (designer)
Wedgwood (manufacturer) - Materials and Techniques:
Earthenware, mounted in metal
- Credit Line:
Given by Wedgwood and Sons
- Museum number:
161-1865
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 122g, case 2
Object Type
This lidded shaving mug was designed by the painter and writer Richard Redgrave (1804-1888), later Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. It was one of the earliest of designs made for Felix Summerly's Art Manufactures and it is an example of early Victorian design, which was sometimes overlaid with an improving message and a narrative subject. It was presented to the Museum by Wedgwood in 1865.
Historical Associations
In response to the Society of Arts' offer, made in 1845, of a prize for designs for a tea service, Henry Cole (1808-1882), using the pseudonym Felix Summerly, produced a design that was executed by Minton. This won a silver medal in the competition held in 1846 and the experience led Cole to believe that it would 'promote public taste' if well-known painters and sculptors could be persuaded to produce designs for similar functional objects. Accordingly, in 1847 he founded 'Summerly's Art Manufactures', which lasted for about three years, until his preoccupation with the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought it to an end. However, for some years afterwards individual firms continued to produce objects originally made for Summerly's.
Design
In 1847 Henry Cole noted that 'RR [Richard Redgrave] and Bell [John Bell] thought Artists ought not to design for Manufacturers: apart from Art Manufactures.' This observation probably accounts for a literary strain apparent in Summerly's Art Manufactures in the use of subjects and titles reminiscent of contemporary genre painting and sculpture. This shaving mug is an example of Redgrave's own symbolic or narrative style of design. However, Redgrave himself subsequently observed that fine artists were actually to blame for committing the prime error, which was 'rather to construct ornament than ornament construction'. This design, accepted by Wedgwood on 27 July 1847, was made and shown in the Society of Arts Exhibition of Recent British Manufactures in 1848 as a set, with matching brush and brush handle. Given the title 'Heroes Bearded and Beardless', the portraits spiral between the proverb
'By the length of his beard can you measure a man?
Poet or Hero? - I doubt if you can.
Bearded or shaven -
Wit comes from heaven'.
