Plate, 'Travel'

Eric William Ravilious (1903-42) was a prolific English painter and designer whose designs for Wedgwood in the second half of the 1930s celebrated the pleasures of life and the everyday with an almost child-like innocence.

This particular plate features his design called 'Travel' which reflected an early twentieth century practice of expressing the idea of travel on ceramics. His other 'Travel' motifs included hot-air balloons, ships, boats and trains, reflecting an interest in modern life and technology set against rural environments.

The original design for this plate was taken from a woodcut by Ravilious and engraved into copper in the 1930s, but was not put into production by Wedgwood until 1953.

Ravilious's contract with Wedgwood was for six weeks a year until the beginning of the Second World War when he was appointed an official war artist.