Fantastic Peacock De Morgan’s Cabinet Handle Towel Pull

Fantastic Peacock

Crackle glazed ceramic 43mm dia handle.
Screw in with washer and two nuts for positioning.
Supplied in branded ribbon gift box

About the Artwork
Spiritualists such as De Morgan’s mother, Sophia, associated peacocks with immortality due to the all-seeing eyes in their tails. In this Fantastic Peacock Dish (c.1888-1907), De Morgan created an arrangement of peacock heads and foliate decoration. This invites us to look beyond the peacock as an earthly creature and focus on its symbolic meaning. The reverse of this plate is decorated in simple concentric circles, a stark contrast to the front.

De Morgan employed various techniques in the production of his ceramics. Designs were transferred to vessels either freehand from his master design or using a pouncing technique (dusting charcoal through a pin-pricked design).

Tiles were created using a semi-transfer technique, whereby a tracing was made of the design, glaze was then painted directly onto the very thin tracing paper, adhered to the tile and fired. In the kiln the paper burnt to ash and was absorbed into the glaze. This ingenious technique allowed

De Morgan's staff to produce multiple repeats of tiles whilst and still conforming to the hand-made principles of the Arts and Crafts Movement. This method also allowed them to produce large pictorial tile panels.