Six Designs for Decorated Cups 1845 - 1855

Curator: Alfred Henry Forrester's "Six Designs for Decorated Cups," dating from 1845 to 1855. The Metropolitan Museum houses this collection of watercolor, coloured pencil, and printed designs on paper. It looks like pages from a scrapbook. Editor: Immediately I’m struck by how dainty these are, almost like whispers of potential beauty. I sense a real Victorian sensibility: decorative but almost timid in their execution. The whole page has a certain reserve about it. Curator: Indeed, that reservation reflects the aesthetic and social confines that governed women's roles in design and decoration during this time. Imagine a society so restrictive it influences even the doodles! How very… Editor: Oppressive, yes, but consider that art in this context became a subtle form of resistance. Craft, often dismissed as “women’s work”, becomes a powerful language. Were these designs intended for commercial production or perhaps the creation of bespoke items in the home? It also makes you question, why cups? Is it to add a bit of loveliness to the everyday, to the quotidian experience of those sipping tea or something similar? Curator: Maybe cups offered a contained, almost subversive space for expression that was safe. I find that incredibly moving—these whispers of personality and artistry hiding in plain sight! Editor: We must consider how Forrester might have influenced, or been influenced by, women engaged in similar pursuits. What socio-economic background did these women represent, what narratives were lost due to the intersection of gender and class and access? These questions are essential. These cups may be pretty, but history demands we dive below the surface. Curator: Precisely! The materiality – the watercolor, coloured pencil – they lend a delicacy, almost a fragile impermanence. Perhaps they’re mourning that these very artistic possibilities were ephemeral for so many women during this time? Editor: Ultimately, these six cup designs are quiet portals into the social dynamics of their era, urging us to sip deeply from history while contemplating design, gender, and power. Curator: It leaves one with a rather poignant taste in one's mouth, doesn’t it? And just the slightest touch of inspiration!