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
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.”
