Wedgwood Green Dragon Lustre Bowl, Daisy Makeig-jones, 1920s

This beautiful piece of English porcelain was designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones and dates from the 1920s. The bowl is covered with a fine lustre glaze and is decorated on the outside with images of a hare, a bird and a bat on an iridescent green ground. Inside the bowl, on the base, is an image of a strange dragon with a human face, and on the sides of the bowl are images of clouds. On the inside of the rim and in three places on the outside, there are pseudo-hieroglyphs. The Wedgwood counterstamp on the base shows the Portland vase mark and three stars below the vase, confirming the authenticity of the product. Between 1915 and 1930, Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945) designed a popular lustre for Wedgwood, based on the imagery of illustrated children's books from the 1890s to 1910s, aptly named the 'Fairyland Lustre'. This highly detailed and brightly coloured ornamental tableware, a stark contrast to the soberly coloured and classically inspired jasper tableware for which Wedgwood is so well known, became extremely popular in the 1920s, as people sought fantasy and escapism in the wake of the horrors of the First World War. Daisy Makeig-Jones helped boost Wedgwood's struggling profits, but her original designs were much more than just 'pretty patterns'. She prided herself on creating stories and hidden worlds around fantastical themes, using rich jewel-like colours and imaginative detail. Daisy’s fairies come from many cultural backgrounds, and the pieces they decorate often tell complex stories. Some Fairyland Lustre pieces required up to six firings. Today, enthusiasm for Makeig-Jones’s work is as strong as ever, perhaps even stronger than when her designs were first exhibited in the 1920s. Interest in her work has been reinforced by various Art Deco exhibitions featuring her pieces, including one at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September 1990, an exhibition of “Wedgwood Fairyland and Other Lustres” at the Long Beach Museum of Art in September 2001, and an exhibition exclusively devoted to her work from the Maurice Kawashima collection at the San Diego Museum of Art in 2005. One fact remains clear: because the production of major Fairyland Lustre pieces was very limited, only a handful survive in pristine condition. These unique pieces will undoubtedly continue to have great investment potential in the years to come, making them not only beautiful objects to appreciate, but also valuable assets - a perfect combination for savvy investors and collectors. All Wedgwood Fairyland and Ordinary Lustre pieces bear the Portland Vase mark, with three stars below the vase from 1900 onwards. The word "ENGLAND" was added to the Wedgwood mark in 1891 to meet the requirements of the US customs regulations known as the McKinley Customs Administrative Act.
Dimensions: Top diameter 8.8 cm, height 5.3 cm.
Condition: The bowl is in excellent condition with no visible chips, cracks or repairs. The lustre and gilding remain brilliant.
Please examine the attached photographs carefully, which form an integral part of this description. The item will be shipped with full tracking and insurance. Please note that shipping costs include labor, packaging and postage.