Bonhams 1793 : Daisy Makeig-Jones for Wedgwood 'Elfin Palace' an Important Prototype Fairyland Lustre Plaque, circa 1920

'Elfin Palace' an Important Prototype Fairyland Lustre Plaque, circa 1920
the fairies in the foreground in a yellow lustre, the sweeping stepped bridge, tribal masks and Feng Hwang bird in green, the foreground and background are in a crimson glaze, with the night sky a navy blue, the pillars in a light blue and deep purple, with 'wet gold' overpainting and printing, mounted in an ebonised frame
27cm x 19.5cm, maker's mark, signature to the lower right hand corner of the design

Sold for £24,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

To find this design in a coloured palette is highly unusual, transforming a design which is more commonly seen in a simple black and gold colourway.

For this particular plaque, be it coloured or not, the decoration procedure differed from the usual method. Firstly the china plaque was painted with the design and lustred. The design was then printed in gold and in certain areas a prepared gold powder mixture was painted as an additional colour ("wet gold"). The plaque was then fired, treated, and then printed with the black outline which would have also been retouched by hand and fired for a third time. This process is in essence the reverse of the standard production procedure.

The original design is seen reproduced in Una des Fontaines' 'Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre', Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1975, page 194. A coloured version is unrecorded in this publication.

Category: Decorative Arts / 20th Century Decorative Arts

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