Dish with Two Chimeras

ca. 1890-1900
William De Morgan

An authentic anti-modern crusade soon developed in Britain, where William Morris’ firm and the Arts and Crafts movement he helped to inspire proclaimed both the authenticity of the Middle Ages and the light of the East. William De Morgan (1839−1917), one of his disciples and rivals, lent his name to a whole line of orientalist production with multiple sources, both Islamic and Asian. His lustrous vases and dishes, bold colours and exotic decorations are sometimes based on very ancient models, like this Hispano-Moresque dish, thus adding the attraction of the primitive to that of faraway places.