Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Tureen and cover, cream-coloured earthenware with clear glaze, the base with a plain foot-ring, the body with flaring sides and pronounced shoulder and inturned rim, two horizontal loop handles beneath the rim, domed cover with bobbin-shaped knop with domed finial and moulded edge; the tureen and cover decorated with evenly-spaced stylised clover leaves hand-painted overglaze in black and green enamels surrounded by free-form dots and loops, between these are groups of four or five short parallel, horizontal brushstroke lines, hand-painted overglaze in black, beneath the rim and at the edge of the cover is a transfer-printed band of interlaced 'S' shapes forming a schematic rope pattern, the handle with reeding and a scalloped terminal.

This is one of at least nine known designs produced by Sutherland for the Modern Art for the Table project, which culminated in an influential exhibition at Harrods in 1934. The project was an attempt to improve the quality of British ceramic design by employing contemporary artists. It was led by Thomas Acland Fennemore, Art Director of E Brain & Company (Foley China), together with Sutherland himself and the designer Milner Gray, who invited leading artists of the day to contribute designs to be made in bone china by Foley and in earthenware by Wilkinson's. The artists involved included Laura Knight, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Frank Brangwyn.