Gold Persephone set for the Coronation Banquet of HM Queen Elizabeth II - 1953
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Dinner plate for the Coronation Banquet of HM Queen Elizabeth II 1953 - Golden Persephone
© Wedgwood Museum
This bone china set is decorated with ‘Golden Persephone’ pattern, with the centre the Royal Coat of Arms. Although ‘Persephone’ was first designed in 1936 by Eric Ravilious, the pattern was chosen in 1953 for the Coronation Banquet service hosted by Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. A total of one thousand two hundred pieces were supplied for the occasion
This bone china set is decorated with ‘Golden Persephone’ pattern, with the centre the Royal Coat of Arms. Although ‘Persephone’ was first designed in 1936 by Eric Ravilious, the pattern was chosen in 1953 for the Coronation Banquet service hosted by Anthony Eden, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. A total of one thousand two hundred pieces were supplied for the occasion.Eric Ravilious was an artist, designer and book illustrator, who studied at both the Eastbourne School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London where his tutor was Paul Nash. In 1935 Lady Sempill introduced Ravilious to Wedgwood who invited him to submit some designs for the Coronation of Edward VIII. It was used for Coronation of both George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth II in 1953, with some small adaptations.Ravilious created several very successful tableware designs but at the outbreak of World War II he was appointed as an official war artist and commissioned into the Royal Marines. In 1942 the air sea rescue aircraft in which he was travelling failed to return from the coast of Iceland. Ravilious is now recognised as one of the most original of the ceramic designers of the 1930s.
- Type of object: Dinner ware/plate
- Mark: Portland Vase (printed in gold) WEDGWOOD (printed in gold) BONE CHINA (printed in gold) MADE IN ENGLAND (printed in gold) GOLDEN PERSEPHONE (printed in gold)
- Year first produced: 1953
- Body: bone china
- Glaze: clear glaze
- Material: ceramic
- Decoration: transfer-printed, edge-lined
- Accession number: 9487 (Dinner plate), 10483 (Soup cup and saucer), 9488 & NY 1090 (Dessert plate), 9489 (Small size plate), 9488 (Salad dish).
- Dimensions: 165 mm (Soup Cup length,), 158 mm (Soup cup diameter,), 228 mm (Desert plate diameter), 178 mm (Small plate diameter,), 203 mm (Salad dish diameter), 270 mm (Dinner plate diameter)
Other images
Related people
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Eric Ravilious
Artist
Eric Ravilious - Artist (1903 - 1942)
Eric William Ravilious was born in west London and trained at the Eastbourne School of Art, winning a scholarship to the Royal College in 1922. He studied engraving, illustration, colour printing and mural painting. Ravilious was introduced to Tom Wedgwood in about 1935 by Lady Cecilia Sempill, and worked for the Wedgwood firm between 1936 and 1940. His first design to go into production was the commemorative mug originally produced for the Coronation of Edward VIII, and adapted for that of George VI in 1937.His work for Wedgwood not only included these designs for commemorative wares, but also incorporated patterns for dinner and tea ware, lemonade sets and nurseryware. Because of wartime restrictions on the production of decorated ware, many of his designs were not put into production in any quantities until the 1950s. In 1940, Ravilious was made an Official War Artist, but was lost on active service in 1942.His designs for Wedgwood included 'Afternoon Tea', engraved in 1937. 'Garden' designed about 1939 and put into production during the 1950s. 'Persephone' designed around 1938 and 'Travel' pattern, designed about 1937.
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HM Queen Elizabeth II
Related People
HM Queen Elizabeth II - Related People (1926)
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor) is Queen of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth countries. She was born as first daughter of King George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and succeeded her father after his death in 1952. She was offically crowned in 1953 in Westminster Abbey. In 1947 she married Philip Mountbatten who was appointed to be Duke of Edinburgh before their wedding and gave birth to four children - Charles,Anne,Andrew and Edward. Queen Elizabeth celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.
Glossary
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Bone china
Bone china
A porcelain made from clay and feldspathic rock with the addition of about 50 percent of calcined animal bone. Josiah Wedgwood II introduced bone china at the Wedgwood Etruria factory in 1812.
