	Eric RAVILIOUS Dates: 1903-1942 Born in London, his father was a craftsman who became an antique dealer. He showed talent for drawing as a school boy and went to study at Eastbourne School of Art (1919-1922) and later won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art (1922-1925). He studied the collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, especially wood cuts and prints alongside fellow student Edward Bawden. Under the influence of Paul Nash, who taught in the Royal Academy in 1925, Ravilious became an accomplished wood engraver. In the late 1920s, he produced designs for books and advertising as well as textiles, furniture and glass. His design talents were noticed by Joshia Wedgwood and Sons who asked him to produce a commemorative mug for the coronation of King Edward VIII in 1936. This was revised for the coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II. Ravilious loved tea himself and created many tea services for Wedgwood including Afternoon Tea (1937), Travel (1938) and Garden Implements (1939) each cheerfully illustrated. He became an official War artist in 1939 and died in a plane cash on a rescue mission off the coast of Iceland. He is well known as a water colourist, particularily for his rural interiors and landscapes of Southern England, as well as his paintings of coastal defenses when he was a war artist. However his design talents should not be underated. For the Alphahet mug (in the ceramics collection, pictured) from the nursery ware of the same name (1937), Ravilious ingeniously places a boat representing the letter Y, inside the mug so that when filled, the boat would appear to float on the level of the liquid.

Eric RAVILIOUS

Dates: 1903-1942

Born in London, his father was a craftsman who became an antique dealer. He showed talent for drawing as a school boy and went to study at Eastbourne School of Art (1919-1922) and later won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art (1922-1925). He studied the collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, especially wood cuts and prints alongside fellow student Edward Bawden. Under the influence of Paul Nash, who taught in the Royal Academy in 1925, Ravilious became an accomplished wood engraver. In the late 1920s, he produced designs for books and advertising as well as textiles, furniture and glass. His design talents were noticed by Joshia Wedgwood and Sons who asked him to produce a commemorative mug for the coronation of King Edward VIII in 1936. This was revised for the coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II. Ravilious loved tea himself and created many tea services for Wedgwood including Afternoon Tea (1937), Travel (1938) and Garden Implements (1939) each cheerfully illustrated. He became an official War artist in 1939 and died in a plane cash on a rescue mission off the coast of Iceland. He is well known as a water colourist, particularily for his rural interiors and landscapes of Southern England, as well as his paintings of coastal defenses when he was a war artist. However his design talents should not be underated. For the Alphahet mug (in the ceramics collection, pictured) from the nursery ware of the same name (1937), Ravilious ingeniously places a boat representing the letter Y, inside the mug so that when filled, the boat would appear to float on the level of the liquid.