Charger with Peacocks' Meeting
Datec. 1890
Artist
William Frend De Morgan
British author, designer, and ceramicist, 1839–1917
Artist
Charles Passenger
British decorator, Arts and Crafts (movement), 1877–1911
MediumRed lustre on glazed on earthenware
Dimensions3 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (8.9 x 40 cm)
Credit LineAcquisition Fund, 1984
Object number1984-164
On View
On viewCollections
- Pre-Raphaelites on View
ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS
Label TextThe peacock, like the sunflower, became one of the signature emblems of the Aesthetic Movement. The comic opera duo of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan spoofed the Aesthetes in both Patience (1881) and The Mikado (1885). In the latter, the character of Buttercup sings, “Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream;
High-lows pass as patent leathers;
Jack-daws strut in peacock’s feathers.”
