Platter 1870 - 1890

Editor: This is a glass platter, dating from around 1870 to 1890, created by Challinor, Taylor and Company. I find the swirling black and white glass quite mesmerizing, but also somewhat obscures the central image. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The obscurity is part of its allure. It isn’t just a decorative plate; it's a captured moment, frozen in time. The black and white swirling glass itself becomes a visual metaphor. Do you notice how it seems to both reveal and conceal the image at the center? Editor: Yes, it's almost dreamlike, as if trying to recall a half-forgotten memory. The figures within the central image seem like players in a faded photograph. Curator: Precisely! The iconography hints at an idealized domestic scene, common in Victorian imagery. The swirling glass suggests the ephemeral nature of these ideals. Mass-produced objects like these often served to reinforce and disseminate these social narratives. Do you think the distortion is intentional, commenting on the inaccessibility of those ideals? Editor: That's a really interesting thought. It's as if the plate is reflecting on the very ideas it's meant to present, suggesting a fragility or even an illusion. Curator: Indeed. Consider the function of a platter—to serve and display. Here, what is being served isn’t merely food but a specific image of family life, imbued with cultural significance that the artist may be subtly questioning through their craft. It makes you consider how objects carry complex cultural meanings beyond their immediate purpose. Editor: I never would have considered all that. I guess I thought of it as a decorative object and nothing more, but there’s so much more to consider regarding what it’s trying to communicate about the values of its time. Curator: And how we, viewing it now, re-interpret that communication through the lens of our own time. Thank you, this has helped me understand how the images resonate across time.