Charger (with a scene of "Un Chevalier sans Peur et Sans Reproche") (Primary Title)
Richard Joyce, British, 1873 - 1931 (Decorator)
Walter Crane, English, 1845 - 1915 (Designer)
Pilkington Tile and Pottery Company, English (Clifton Junction, Manchester), founded 1892 (Manufacturer)
The decoration on this charger was created by Walter Crane, one of the most important designers of the late 19th century. A key participant in the Anglo-American Aesthetic movement and a leading exponent of the British Arts and Crafts movement, Crane designed book illustrations, stained-glass windows, wallpaper, ceramics, and textiles. His design of Saint George and the Dragon, seen here, relates to his illustration in an 1894 publication of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. This plate is inscribed with the words Un Chevalier Sans Peur et Sans Reproche (A Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach).
All of Crane’s designs for Pilkington’s Tile & Pottery Company were executed in “Lancastrian Lustre”; Lancastrian refers to the location of the company in Lancaster County, England, while lustre describes the pearly sheen on the pottery’s surface. This sheen was achieved by first applying a glaze of various materials, including metallic oxides and red clay, and then manipulating the firing process to various temperatures.
Several ceramic charges with Crane’s chivalric design were made at Pilkington’s using different colored plates. Only three chargers, including this one, are known to still exist.
Abraham Lomax, Royal Lancastrian Pottery, 1900-1938, pl. 5 (the design attributed to Gordon M. Forsyth);
Pilkington Manufactory Archive photo album, no. 1, "George and Dragon," shape LL 6167 (cited below, in Rudoe, p. 34);
Anthony J. Cross, Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian Pottery and Tiles, Richard Dennis publication, London, 1980, ill. p. 13, pl. X;
Greg Smith and Sarah Hide (eds.), Walter Crane 1845-1915: Artist, Design and Socialist, 1989, pp. 106-107, C36;
Judy Rudoe, Decorative Arts 1850-1950: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, 1991, pp. 34-35, no. 56;
Numerous citations within Curatorial file)
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
