ravilious wedgwood travel

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Eric ravilious and wedgwood pioneering british design in the 20th century.

Eric Ravilious (1903–1942) was a British painter, illustrator, and designer, noted for his distinctive watercolors and for his significant contributions to applied art. He is often remembered for the brief yet impactful period he spent working for the renowned pottery and porcelain company, Wedgwood, from 1936 to 1940. In this feature we take a brief look at the creative genius Eric Ravilious with particular reference to his time and work at Wedgwood.

Eric William Ravilious was born in Eastbourne, Sussex. From an early age, Ravilious displayed an aptitude for drawing, and by 1919, he was attending Eastbourne School of Art. His education journey led him to the prestigious Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, where he studied painting and was mentored by established artists like Paul Nash.

In the early 1930s, Ravilious’s work gained recognition. His style, characterized by subtle watercolors and wood engravings, often portrayed English landscapes, domestic scenes, and maritime subjects in a manner that was both whimsical and deeply rooted in the English tradition.

Ravilious’s design talent caught the attention of Wedgwood, one of England’s oldest and most esteemed ceramic manufacturers. Beginning in 1936, he worked as a designer for the company, creating a range of ceramic pieces that were both decorative and functional. His work during this period is noted for its marriage of tradition with a fresh, modern sensibility.

For Wedgwood, Ravilious designed several iconic pieces, including the “Travel” and “Garden” series of china. His designs often featured playful motifs, geometrical patterns, and scenes that evoked a quintessentially English feel. One of his most renowned works for Wedgwood is the commemorative mug for the coronation of King Edward VIII in 1937. Though the coronation never took place, the mug has become a sought-after collector’s item. (click to learn more – The Eric Ravilious 1937 Coronation Mug A Unique Testament to a Historic Event )

Eric Ravilious’s “Alphabet” design stands as a testament to his unique style and ability to elevate everyday concepts into art. Originally created for Wedgwood in the 1930s, this design transformed the simple idea of the alphabet into an enchanting display of artistry. Each letter was intricately illustrated with playful, often pastoral or nautical scenes, reflecting Ravilious’s penchant for blending the mundane with the whimsical. The design, rendered in Ravilious’s signature muted colors and intricate line work, exemplifies his keen observation of the world around him and his ability to translate it into delicate, yet dynamic imagery. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the “Alphabet” design underscores Ravilious’s role as a pioneer in bringing graphic design principles into the realm of ceramics and commercial art.

Another classic design is Boat Race Day which was crafted in 1938. It was inspired by the Oxford and Cambridge boat race and has actually been re-released by Wedgwood twice since.

In 1939, with the onset of World War II, Ravilious became one of the first official war artists. His role required him to document the war, and he produced a range of works capturing both the mundane and dramatic aspects of life during wartime. Tragically, in 1942, while on a search mission in Iceland, the aircraft carrying Ravilious went missing. He was declared lost at the age of 39.

Eric Ravilious’s legacy is multifaceted. As a painter, his landscapes and wartime depictions stand as a testament to his unique perspective on the world around him. As a designer, his work for Wedgwood has become emblematic of a period in British ceramics when tradition met modernity. His influence can be seen in the works of many subsequent British artists and designers, and he remains a beloved figure in the annals of 20th-century British art.

Related The Eric Ravilious 1937 Coronation Mug A Unique Testament to a Historic Event Eric Ravilious Alphabet Mug and Alphabet Seriesware

 Eric Ravilious and Wedgwood

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Patterns for Production | Eric Ravilious

Ravilious’ ceramics for Wedgwood – not as well known, perhaps, as his fine and graphic art – have become a sort of holy grail for design collectors. They are applied design at its very best; quite rare and certainly rarefied.

Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) was both a fine artist and a commercial designer. The term ‘commercial designer’ was of his time, particularly the 1930s, when a few individuals were commissioned to design ‘commercial art’, everything from posters to pottery, paper to wallpaper, fabric to ephemeral furbelows. They often knew each other, this bunch. They worked for the same clients, sold their wares in the same shops. Some cohabitation and bedroom meanderings seem to have happened, too, but they lay (forgive the pun) outside the scope of this article. If Ravilious’ life was short (he was listed as missing in action (presumed dead) in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1942) his work was certainly sweet. Part of a group of artists and friends based in Essex, painting a soon to be lost England during the 1930s, his work (along with his friend Edward Bawden’s) has become collectable and much published. Ravilious’ ceramics for Wedgwood – not as well known, perhaps, as his fine and graphic art – have become a sort of holy grail for design collectors. They are applied design at its very best; quite rare and certainly rarefied.

When Ravilious began designing for Wedgwood in 1936 he was 33 years of age and already established as an artist and commercial designer. It is not clear exactly who introduced the artist to the pottery. In her book Eric Ravilious: Memoirs of an Artist , Helen Binyon (she was his lover; he was married to Tirzah Garwood), mentions that a first meeting with Josiah Wedgwood happened in 1935. And was followed by ceramic trials at the Wedgwood factory in Etruria, Stoke on Trent. Presaging this, Viktor Skellern, who worked at Wedgwood, had won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in 1930, where he met Ravilious. Skellern returned to Wedgwood in 1935 to slip on the shoes of art director. By February 1936 Ravilious had his second solo exhibition at the Zwemmer Gallery on Litchfield Street, London – a sister space to Zwemmer’s art bookshop on Charing Cross Road. Ravilious was designing officially for Wedgwood by May that year. We can probably assume that coffee and gentlemanly discussions were continued between Messrs Skellern and Ravilious somewhere along Charing Cross Road around this time.

Ravilious’ first solid commission for Wedgwood was a Coronation mug for Edward VIII. It was never mass produced due to his abdication, but apparently Mrs Simpson managed to buy one. In one of his many letters (now handsomely published by the Fleece Press) Ravilious wrote to Binyon that Wedgwood paid him for six weeks ‘in the year’ of his time. He added that he had no idea of his fee but that he thought it likely to be ‘beautifully disproportionate to the time and effort.’ Ravilious was fully ensconced at Wedgwood by August 1936, and found himself coming up against the age-old argument of taste versus sales in their discussions. Of a visit to the factory that year, he wrote to Binyon: ‘You will be sorry that the [Wedgwood] family think my beautiful designs above the heads of their public and that to begin with, something should be done safer and more understandable.’ There follows a delightfully catty description of Laura Knight’s contemporaneous design for a commemorative mug, an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ sort of design for Burleigh Ware. At the time, as Woolworths were to Harrods, so Burleigh Ware was to Wedgwood. The consensus was that although Knight’s design was bad (or ‘bloody’ as Ravilious described it) the sales would most probably be good. It seems the relationship between Ravilious and Wedgwood was never entirely smooth sailing and he executed many more designs than were ever issued.

Most of Ravilious’ Wedgwood designs played to his recurring artistic muses: bucolic and domestic scenes, gardening implements, ethnographic objects and bits and pieces from light industry. He seems to have re-used ideas, sketches and drawings from other projects in his work for Wedgwood. His first dinner set for them, Persephone , came out in 1936, originally named as Harvest Festival . It was re-named Persephone in 1938, but by 1953 the backs had Harvest Festival stamped on them again. This design was inspired by Ravilious’ drawing of 1936: Harvest Festival and Loaves , sketched at his local church in Castle Hedingham, Essex. He also produced devices for the Cornhill magazine that same year, several of which illustrate the fish, vegetables and horns of plenty that form the cornucopia on each piece of Persephone . The design also has a rolling firework-like patterned border, utilised in a variety of ways across the range. Persephone came in blue, green, pink and yellow colourways, along with a special Coronation Golden Persephone , issued in 1952 (though it should be said that Ravilious did not have the right of veto for colourways).

In 1937 Ravilious produced his Alphabet set for Wedgwood. The design was a delight; an alphabet as only Ravilious could imagine and illustrate it. And it was the only set Ravilious designed that was aimed at younger clientele but bought, of course, by the grown-ups. The set consisted of a large and small mug, a porringer, a plate, a double egg cup, a jug and lamp base – quite a lot for baby. The design for Alphabet is rather sophisticated for a children’s set. Among the subjects chosen to illustrate letters were a bentwood rocker, a bird’s nest, an Indian headdress and a box of matches; one might struggle to connect most of the illustrations to any children’s book of the time. Nevertheless, Ravilious’ Alphabet is not half as sentimental (not to say mawkish) as Mabel Lucie Atwell ceramic offerings designed for Shelly – an example, perhaps, of how far Wedgwood were willing to go to challenge the status quo.

Today one of Ravilious’ most coveted ceramic designs is Garden from 1938. Decorated with exquisitely detailed vignettes of outdoor play, it is perhaps the most ‘Ravilious-y’ of all his Wedgwood designs. Swimming, reading in a stripy deckchair, and tree felling all feature. The accompanying Garden Implements lemonade set, issued a year later in 1939, showcased gardening tools – with a swish of a twig broom on the handle and an old oak barrel (that also appeared on one of the Garden plates) full of interesting paraphernalia on the side. Both Garden sets seem quite suited to imagined refreshments under the sun; drinking to a soundtrack of birds, squeaky crickets and croquet taps. Ravilious’ life-long love of gardening showed itself in his watercolours and in the Wedgwood set. Great Bardfield, where Ravilious lived, was (and is) a sleepy, beautiful moment in time. Rows of historic houses line the main street in a picture-perfect English village and living there must have provided Ravilious with a great deal of intimate inspirations. The same year Garden came out, Ravilious produced designs for his Travel set, a slightly more future-themed offering, though nothing incongruous as far as he was concerned, as he loved trains and vehicles. Travel was not put into production until 1952, when a darker colour palette of grey with blue transfers was chosen. Whether the delay was because of the war or because Wedgwood wasn’t ready for it, is unclear.

In terms of the shapes Ravilious was asked to design for, many were stock Wedgwood – rather old fashioned when compared to the triangles and angles of art deco style ceramics. The technique Wedgwood used to realise Ravilious’ designs was transfer printing, a technique popular since the mid-18th century. It was a skilled technique, and one Wedgwood engravers were very well placed to do. though at first Ravilious, worried about quality, had wanted only one man to work engraving his designs. Skellern set all his men working on them in secret, only revealing the fact to Ravilious after he’d seen the results. Ravilious remarked: ‘I will never argue about the Wedgwood engraving any more, these chaps are without doubt the finest engravers I have ever met.’ Wedgwood’s craftsmen were aided by the sheer sepcificity of Ravilious’ designs, many of which have survived and are reproduced in a Richard Dennis’ fascinating Ravilious and Wedgwood: The Complete Wedgwood Designs of Eric Ravilious .

Ravilious’ ceramics were really more about applied design than designed form, at a time when the term ‘applied design’ was still a profanity in some circles – including those Ravilious relied on for work. Magazines of the period, like Art and Industry , were filled with ‘he says, she says’ arguments on the question of taste in design. And for Ravilious there was a fine design line to be tiptoed between influential industry thinkers and clients who wanted sales at any cost. Ravilious’ letters show he was clever at being patient with clients, before having his rant when writing to friends, most of them understanding artists themselves. His letters also show he was living the typical (then and now) peripatetic life of a freelance commercial designer, skipping from pay check to pay check. In September 1938, as the country slumped deeper into political unrest, Wedgwood ‘let go’ of Ravilious’ services, after he’d offered to resign. With his final cheque came a reckoning showing that Persephone had been his best-selling design. His ceramics continued to be produced: in the postwar period some designs were re-issued posthumously, and some (like Travel ) were issued for the first time.

Ravilious’ designs for Wedgwood never achieved huge sales. One presumes they were available in Wedgwood’s London showrooms and through their catalogues, and his friend Cecilia Dunbar Kilburn would surely have sold some of his ceramics in her London gallery: Dunbar Hay . But what to our eyes now look like perfectly poised and covetable pieces, may, at the time, have been a bit hard to place. They might have read as a little dull next to splashy Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliff ceramics. On the other hand, they would not have been quite as robustly minimalist enough for the European modernist groupies, who may rather have reached for Wedgwood’s plain, parsimonious (but pretty) Keith Murray range. Luckily for us, we are able, with the gift of hindsight and the emerging research available on Ravilious and Wedgwood, to celebrate his ceramic designs as quintessential examples of his sprightly line – and as fine objects we might still like to own, even today.

Jane Audas is a writer, craft & design curator and digital consultant in museums. She is a design historian by training and by inclination. Jane writes a blog about paper, craft, design and toy things – much of it from the inter-war years – that can be found on her website: www.janeaudas.com.

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Ravilious was born in 1903, and studied at the Royal College of Art in London in the 1920s.

He is famous for his woodcuts and his later watercolours. He painted many subjects, but was particularly attracted to views of the English South Downs, close to the town of Eastbourne where he grew up. By the early 20 th Century, the work of the Impressionists in the previous century had made it acceptable to paint “ordinary” scenes. However, there is none of the visual urgency of Impressionism in Ravilious’s work, which is much more considered. It is clearly the result of long, painstaking hours of either woodcutting or watercolour painting.

Magic Realism is a term you more often hear applied to literature than the visual arts, in particular the works of Latin American authors like Gabriel García Márquez and Laura Esquivel. I strongly recommend Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate if you’re interested in finding out more. It’s one of my favourites, and includes such notable moments as the one in which a character is inflamed by passion to such a degree that the heat they give off sets fire to a wooden shower stall in which they are attempting to cool off. Hence Magic Realism, stories in which impossible things happen but the world is recognisably ours, not a fantasy world.

Applied to the visual arts, Magic Realism is something slightly different. According to art critic Franz Roh (see the first paragraph via this link ), it’s the depiction of ordinary objects or landscapes in such a way as to hint at something uncanny or strange lurking under the surface. There is a sense in such works that something is slightly off kilter without there being any clear evidence as to what that is.

You can see it very clearly in Ravilious’s woodcuts like the one above, where the dramatic contrast of black and white gives a character to the shadows, a sense of something lurking behind the benign landscapes or domesticity on show.  Perspectives which are slightly off add to the vague unease which permeates many of his woodcuts.

He seems always to have had an interest in depicting transport amongst his other subjects, and painted several wonderful railway pictures. The first is his “Train Going Over a Bridge at Night” of 1935:

However, his interior of a third class Great Western Railway carriage is my favourite of his paintings, with its beautiful detail (you can feel the cushioning of the seats) and sense of mysteriousness in the mundane; the idea that lurking just out of frame must be the passengers. Where are they going, and why?

The chalk figure in the background is the Westbury White Horse, a subject he painted more than once, and in fact “Train Landscape” is the mirror image of an earlier painting, “ The Westbury Horse ” of 1939, which has the horse in the foreground, and the train passing by at the foot of the hill. Chalk hill figures were a perfect foil for Ravilious’s Magic Realism, themselves objects of mystery and speculation, yet at heart nothing more than scratches in the ground. He also painted the Uffington White Horse , the Long Man of Wilmington and the Cerne Abbas Giant .

He wasn’t only interested in railways, though one of his several ship paintings has a close connection. This is the S.S. Brighton, one of the Southern Railway’s cross-channel ferries:

“Wiltshire Landscape” of 1938, meanwhile conveys perfectly the experience of inter-war motoring, but also exemplifies the sense of otherness that can be found in Ravilious’s work.

Through his work for the Curwen Press, which printed much of the London Underground’s publicity, and a long-standing friendship with artist and established contributor to Underground posters/advertisements Edward Bawden, Ravilious too found himself working for Frank Pick’s London Transport. This was all part of Pick’s ambition to integrate art and design with the operational elements of the public transport network he was in the process of forging. Unusually, however, you won’t recognise Ravilious’s works from London Transport’s poster art. Ravilious produced two poster designs of Greenwich, neither of which were used (you can see them here and here ). It’s not clear today why, but it’s possible that his restrained designs weren’t as immediately eye-catching as some of the bolder designs London Transport was commissioning from artists such as Cyril Power.

However, Ravilious’s woodcut skills were employed to brilliant effect by London Transport in publicity for its Green Line coaches operation. In 1935 Ravilious produced a series of stock illustrations which could be used to illustrate black and white newspaper advertisements for Green Line. These often took the form of some educational text about a potential destination, a Ravilious illustration below,  and then standard text about how to get hold of the Green Line Coach Guide at the bottom. So it was that over a woodcut of a severely dressed woman clipping her hedges and overshadowed by a disconcertingly grasping tree, you might be exhorted to visit Great Bookham in Surrey (“a good starting point for rambles”). Alternatively, over a woodcut of a farmer and three of his sheep, you could be implored to enjoy the “plenty of good places for tea” in Crawley, which unfortunately seems to have lost this bucolic character somewhere along the line during the last 80 years. Ravilious also produced front cover illustrations for three editions of Country Walks , guidebooks publicising the out-of-London destinations Green Line coaches reached.

These woodcuts are absolute gems, but Ravilious’s work for London Transport has been overshadowed by greater interest in the company’s poster art, and he isn’t as well-known for it as those who did produce posters.

He returned to transport as a subject when he produced the patterns for what became a very famous series of dinnerware items from ceramics company Wedgwood, called “Travel”. It illustrated several modes of transport including an aeroplane, a train, a bus and an ocean liner.

It appeared in 1953, yet illustrated transport from the 1930s in an almost picture-book idealised manner. The Travel dinnerware series embodied a sort of near-immediate nostalgia for the comforting security of the pre-war world. The reason the designs featured pre-war travel was that they had been commissioned before the war, but production of the dinner service did not commence until afterwards.

And Ravilious himself wasn’t around to see it. He was killed in the war. He had taken up a role as a war artist, producing many fine paintings of the British military in action. He volunteered to go along on a search and rescue mission near Iceland in 1942, a mission from which never returned.

I think it’s fair to say that Ravilious isn’t one of the most famous artists of the 20 th Century, and Magic Realism isn’t one of its bigger art movements, quickly overshadowed by the more obviously unreal works of the Surrealists. However, he is a favourite of quite a few art enthusiasts in the transport industry, and you’ll find his works referenced from time to time. Rarely, however, has that been done quite so spectacularly as on a special bus in the fleet of south coast-based operator Brighton & Hove. One of three buses specially redecorated to celebrate local highlights as part of a campaign called “Get Bus(y)”, bus 490 publicises the South Downs National Park which surrounds Brighton and which is served by several Brighton & Hove bus routes.

Outside it is covered with beautiful Ravilious woodcut-style illustrations of places and wildlife of the South Downs, repeated inside on seatback vinyls which replicate the Green Line advert concept of illustration, explanatory text, and travel information at the bottom:

The Long Man of Wilmington decorates the stairwell surround on the upper deck:

Compare to one of Ravilious’s original woodcuts:

The Ravilious bus is a lovely piece of on-bus promotion, although the seatback vinyls have been prone to damage through wear and tear. Nevertheless it’s a very welcome tribute to an artist who saw the magic in transport (much as I suspect you do, if you’ve read this far), and who deserves to be more widely known.

Further reading and bibliography

Mainstone, Tim [editor], 2006: Away We Go! Norwich, Mainstone Press ( link here )

Here’s a video all about Brighton & Hove’s Ravilious Bus, and the inspiration behind its redecoration (strongly recommended):

…and anything linked to in the text above

Many thanks to the Wedgwood Museum ( homepage here ) for their help in sourcing an illustration of the Travel dinnerware set.

Many thanks to Carole Richmond, marketing manager at Brighton & Hove Buses for her patience in answering questions about the Ravilious bus, and for helping me find it so I could take some photos (perhaps if they read this, the perplexed other passengers will now understand what I was doing…)

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7 thoughts on “ eric ravilious: transport magician ”.

Design ideas from the world of transport! X

Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2016 16:03:39 +0000 To: [email protected]

The man was a genius. His style of art encapsulates the style of that period. He left us a legacy of beautiful art from a view as he saw it.

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'Travel' a Wedgwood part tea and coffee service designed by Ravilious

In Antiques & Collectables - November 2023

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CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS FOR BUYERS  1. INTRODUCTION  (a) The contractual relationship of Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd and Sellers with prospective Buyers is governed by:  (i) these Conditions of Business for Buyers;  (ii) the Conditions of Business for Sellers available from Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd;  (iii) any additional notices and terms printed in the sale catalogue, in each case as amended by any saleroom notice or auctioneer’s announcement.  (b) As auctioneer, Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd acts as agent for the Seller. Occasionally, Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd may own or have a financial interest in a lot.  2. DEFINITIONS  “Bidder” is any person making, attempting or considering making a bid, including Buyers;  “Buyer” is the person who makes the highest bid or offer accepted by the auctioneer, including a Buyer’s principal when bidding as agent;  “Seller” is the person offering a lot for sale, including their agent, or executors;  “THE COMPANY” means Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd, registered office: Lygon House, 50 London Road, Bromley BR1 3RA. Company Registration number: 08020183;  “Buyer’s Expenses” are any costs or expenses due to Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers Ltd from the Buyer;  “Buyer’s Premium” is the commission payable by the Buyer on the Hammer Price at the current rate of 26.4% (inc VAT);  “Hammer Price” is the highest bid for the Property accepted by the auctioneer at the auction or the post auction sale price;  “Purchase Price” is the Hammer Price plus applicable Buyer’s Premium and Buyer’s Expenses;  “Reserve Price” (where applicable) is the minimum Hammer Price at which the Seller has agreed to sell a lot.  The Buyer’s Premium, Buyer’s Expenses and Hammer Price are subject to VAT, where applicable.  3. EXAMINATION OF LOTS  (a) THE COMPANYs knowledge of lots is partly dependent on information provided by the Seller and THE COMPANY is unable to exercise exhaustive due diligence on each lot. Each lot is available for examination before sale by appointment. Bidders are responsible for carrying out examinations and research before sale to satisfy themselves over the condition of lots and accuracy of descriptions.  (b) All oral and/or written information provided to Bidders relating to lots, including descriptions in the catalogue, condition reports or elsewhere are statements of THE COMPANY’s opinion and not representations of fact. Each lot is sold by the Seller with any and all errors of description, faults and imperfections. All weights and measurements are approximate and should not be relied upon as fact. Estimates may not be relied on as a prediction of the selling price or value of the lot and may be revised from time to time at THE COMPANY’s absolute discretion.  4. EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY TO BUYERS  (a) THE COMPANY shall refund the Purchase Price to the Buyer in circumstances where it deems that the lot is a Counterfeit.  (b) Subject to Condition 4(a), neither THE COMPANY nor the Seller: (i) is liable for any errors or omissions in any oral or written information provided to Bidders by THE COMPANY, whether negligent or otherwise; (ii) gives any guarantee or warranty to Bidders and any implied warranties and conditions are excluded (save in so far as such obligations cannot be excluded by English law), other than the express warranties given by the Seller to the Buyer (for which the Seller is solely responsible) under the Conditions of Business for Sellers; (iii) accepts responsibility to Bidders for acts or omissions (whether negligent or otherwise) by THE COMPANY in connection with the conduct of auctions or for any matter relating to the sale of any lot.  (c) Without prejudice to Condition 4(b), any claim against THE COMPANY and/ or the Seller by a Bidder is limited to the Purchase Price for the relevant lot. Neither THE COMPANY nor the Seller shall be liable for any indirect or consequential losses.  (d) Nothing in Condition 4 shall exclude or limit the liability of THE COMPANY or the Seller for death or personal injury caused by the negligent acts or omissions of THE COMPANY or the Seller.  5. BIDDING AT AUCTION  (a) THE COMPANY has absolute discretion to refuse entry to the online auction. Before sale, Bidders must register online or complete a Registration Form and supply such information and references as THE COMPANY requires. Bidders are personally liable for their bid and are jointly and severally liable with their principal, if bidding as agent (in which case THE COMPANY’s prior and express consent must be obtained).  (b) THE COMPANY will endeavour to execute absentee written bids provided that they are, in THE COMPANY’s opinion, received in sufficient time and in legible form.  (c) When available, written and telephone bidding is offered as a free service at the Bidder’s risk and subject to THE COMPANY’s other commitments; THE COMPANY is therefore not liable for failure to execute such bids. Telephone bidding may be recorded. 

6. IMPORT, EXPORT AND COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS  THE COMPANY and the Seller make no representations or warranties as to whether any lot is subject to import, export or copyright restrictions. It is the Buyer’s sole responsibility to obtain any copyright clearance or any necessary import, export or other licence required by law, including licenses required by law under the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).  7. CONDUCT OF THE AUCTION  (a) The auctioneer has discretion to refuse bids, withdraw or re-offer lots for sale (including after the fall of the hammer) if (s)he believes that there may be an error or dispute, and may also take such other action as (s)he reasonably deems necessary.(b) The auctioneer will commence and advance the bidding in such increments as (s)he considers appropriate and is entitled to place bids on the Seller’s behalf up to the Reserve Price for the lot, where applicable.  (c) Subject to Condition 7(a), the contract between the Buyer and the Seller is concluded on the striking of the auctioneer’s hammer.  (d) Any post-auction sale of lots shall incorporate these Conditions of Business.  8. PAYMENT AND COLLECTION  (a) Unless otherwise agreed in advance, payment of the Purchase Price is due in pounds sterling immediately after the auction (the “Payment Date”).  (b) Title in a lot will not pass to the Buyer until THE COMPANY has received the Purchase Price in cleared funds. THE COMPANY will generally not release a lot to a Buyer before payment. Earlier release shall not affect passing of title or the Buyer’s obligation to pay the Purchase Price, as above.  (c) The refusal of any licence or permit required by law, as outlined in Condition 6, shall not affect the Buyer’s obligation to pay for the lot, as per Condition 8(a).  (d) The Buyer must arrange collection of lots on a mutually convenient day agreed by The Company and the Buyer. Purchased lots are at the Buyer’s risk from the earlier of (i) collection or release to a nominated carrier (ii) 5 working days after the auction. Until risk passes, THE COMPANY will compensate the Buyer for any loss or damage to the lot up to a maximum of the Purchase Price actually paid by the Buyer. THE COMPANY’s assumption of risk is subject to the exclusions detailed in Condition 5(d) of the Conditions of Business for Sellers.  (e) All packing and handling of lots is at the Buyer’s risk. THE COMPANY will not be liable for any acts or omissions of third party packers or shippers.  9. REMEDIES FOR NON-PAYMENT  Without prejudice to any rights that the Seller may have, if the Buyer without prior agreement fails to make payment for the lot within 5 working days of the auction, THE COMPANY may in its sole discretion exercise 1 or more of the following remedies:-  (a) store the lot at its premises or elsewhere at the Buyer’s sole risk and expense;  (b) cancel the sale of the lot;  (c) set off any amounts owed to the Buyer by THE COMPANY against any amounts owed to THE COMPANY by the Buyer for the lot;  (d) reject future bids from the Buyer;  (e) charge interest at 4% per annum above NatWest Bank Base Rate from the Payment Date to the date that the Purchase Price is received in cleared funds;  (f) re-sell the lot by auction or privately, with estimates and reserves at THE COMPANY’s discretion, in which case the Buyer will be liable for any shortfall between the original Purchase Price and the amount achieved on re-sale, including all costs incurred in such re-sale;  (g) Exercise a lien over any Buyer’s Property in THE COMPANY’s possession, applying the sale proceeds to any amounts owed by the Buyer to THE COMPANY. THE COMPANY shall give the Buyer 14 days written notice before exercising such lien;  (h) commence legal proceedings to recover the Purchase Price for the lot, plus interest and legal costs;  (i) disclose the Buyer’s details to the Seller to enable the Seller to commence legal proceedings.  10. FAILURE TO COLLECT PURCHASES  (a) If the Buyer pays the Purchase Price but does not collect the lot within 10 working days of the auction, the lot will be stored at the Buyer’s expense and risk at THE COMPANY’s premises or in independent storage.  (b) If a lot is paid for but uncollected within 1 month of the auction, following 60 days written notice to the Buyer, THE COMPANY will re-sell the lot by auction or privately, with estimates and reserves at THE COMPANY’s discretion. The sale proceeds, less all THE COMPANY’s costs, will be forfeited unless collected by the Buyer within 2 years of the original auction.  11. DATA PROTECTION  (a) THE COMPANY will use information supplied by Bidders or otherwise obtained lawfully by THE COMPANY for the provision of auction related services, client administration, marketing and as otherwise required by law.  (b) By agreeing to these Conditions of Business, the Bidder agrees to the processing of their personal information and to the disclosure of such information to third parties world-wide for the purposes outlined in Condition 11(a) and to Sellers as per Condition 9(i).  12. MISCELLANEOUS  (a) All images of lots, catalogue descriptions and all other materials produced by THE COMPANY are the copyright of THE COMPANY.  (b) These Conditions of Business are not assignable by any Buyer without THE COMPANY’s prior written consent, but are binding on Bidders’ successors, assigns and representatives.  (c) The materials listed in Condition 1(a) set out the entire agreement between the parties.  (d) If any part of these Conditions of Business be held unenforceable, the remaining parts shall remain in full force and effect.  (e) These Conditions of Business shall be interpreted in accordance with English Law, under the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts, in favour of THE COMPANY. 

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Eric Ravilious Wedgwood

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Wedgwood Vintage Golden Jubilee 1952-2002 Eric Ravilious Celebration Mug

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2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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