Edward William Godwin

“From 1860 to 1900, a group of artists, architects and designers in Britain found themselves united in the search for a new beauty. The Aesthetic Movement aimed to create a new kind of art, an art freed from outworn establishment ideas and Victorian notions of morality. This was to be ‘Art for Art’s sake’ – art that didn’t tell stories or make moral points, art that dared simply to offer visual delight and hint at sensuous pleasure.” (Museum, 2021)

The above image is of a set of red earthenware ceramic pots created by Edward William Godwin in 1877. Godwin used sgraffito decoration on cream slip to depict Japanese-style motifs such as birds. The artist designed these pots as decorative pieces rather than functional, in line with the aesthetic movement. Godwin used symbolisms to show the beauty of aesthetic as well as straight forward pictorials such as the use of a table illustration on his first pot with the word ‘Kawphyrite’ (copyright) in mock-Greek next to it, referring to the plagiarism of Godwin’s furniture pieces around this time; it is clear in his designs that he was interested in the relationship between ceramics and furniture and the interaction between the two to bring together interiors within their own aesthetics. The shape Godwin chose to use for these pots is not seen as traditional, however, he chose this eccentric style to highlight the pots decorative nature and to revive the traditional styles, such as slip-ware whilst further highlighting the artist work itself.

Bibliography

Museum, V., 2021. V&A · Aestheticism. [online] Victoria and Albert Museum. Available at: <https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/aestheticism> [Accessed 13 March 2021]. – (Museum, 2021)

Museum, V., 2008. Vase | Watt, William | Godwin, Edward William | V&A Explore The Collections. [online] Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Available at: <https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O158260/vase-godwin-edward-william/> [Accessed 13 March 2021]. – (Museum, 2008)