Susannah Margaretta "Daisy" Makeig-Jones was a pottery designer for Wedgwood. She is best known for her "Fairyland Lustre" series. Makeig-Jones was born in Wath-upon-Dearne near Rotherham, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children. Her father, K. Geoffrey Makeig-Jones, was of Welsh descent and was a medical doctor and her mother was the daughter of Thomas Reeder, a solicitor. Makeig-Jones was taught by a governess at home, then attended a boarding school near Rugby. After her family moved to Torquay, she entered the Torquay School of Art. After an introduction from a relative to the managing director of Cecil Wedgwood, Makeig-Jones joined the firm as an apprentice painter in 1909.
Arguably the most celebrated of all English ceramics makers, Wedgwood was founded in 1759 by potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95) in Staffordshire, which was home at one time to hundreds of pottery workshops. The company is famed for its Jasperware — molded neoclassical stoneware vases, plates and other pieces inspired by ancient cameo glass, featuring white figures, scenes and decorative elements set in relief on a matte-colored background. The best-known background hue is light blue, but Wedgwood’s iconic silhouettes also appear on green, lilac, yellow, black and even white grounds. Some antique Wedgwood dinnerware pieces and other items feature three or more colors.
The Wedgwood firm first came to prominence for its tableware, which quickly gained favor in aristocratic households throughout Britain and Europe. In 1765, Wedgwood was commissioned to create a cream-colored earthenware service for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. The queen was so thrilled with her new china that Wedgwood was given permission to call himself “Potter to Her Majesty,” and the decorative style became known as Queen’s Ware.
Not to be outdone, Catherine the Great of Russia commissioned her own set of Wedgwood china in 1773. Nearly 200 years later, the firm created a 1,200-piece service for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In recent years, leading designers including Jasper Conran and Vera Wang have collaborated with Wedgwood — in the tradition of such distinguished 18th-century artists such as the painter George Stubbs and metalsmith Matthew Boulton.
From plates and other dinnerware to decorative items like urns, cachepots and candlesticks, Wedgwood designs lend a traditional air to Anglophile interiors. And even if you have to make your own tea, you may find it comforting to sip it from a delicate cup that was manufactured in the same Stoke-on-Trent kiln that produced Her Majesty’s tea service. Be sure to keep your pinky raised.
Find antique Wedgwood pottery on 1stDibs.
$1,500
H 4.25 in Dm 2.75 in
Antique Wedgwood Makeig-Jones Fairyland Lustre Celestial Dragon Cabinet Vase
By Wedgwood, Daisy Makeig-Jones
Located in Philadelphia, PA
A fine antique English lustreware porcelain cabinet vase. By Wedgwood. Pattern no. Z4829 Shape no. 2351 Designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones. With a ...
Porcelain
Daisy Makeig-Jones Fairyland Wedgwood Lustre Vase
By Wedgwood, Daisy Makeig-Jones, Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
A Wedgwood Fairyland lustre vase designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones ca. 1920 and decorated with the 'Castle on a Road' pattern. Daisy Makeig-Jones is best known for the Fairyland Lustre...
Ceramic, Luster, Porcelain
$2,897
H 8.25 in Dm 4 in
Mystical Gilded Dragon Wedgwood Mixed Blue Ordinary Lustre Porcelain Vase Z4829
By Daisy Makeig-Jones
Located in Rothley, Leicestershire
A dramatic blue pearl lustre dragon porcelain vase created in the 1920s by Daisy Makeig-Jones for Wedgwood, Dominated by a bold gilded dragon on an azure blue background. Exotic gilded script motifs decorate among the pale blue lustre...
Porcelain
George Clews Tunstall Chameleon Ware Large Hand-Painted Vase
By Clews Pottery
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
A very large and impressive Art Deco George Clews & Co, Tunstall, Chameleon Ware hand painted vase with leaves dating from around 1925. The finely potted ...
Earthenware
$2,200
H 12.4 in W 10.93 in D 6.3 in
Impressive snake flower vase, famous Znaim ceramics Art Nouveau Jugendstil 1900s
By Workshops of Znaim
Located in Wien, AT
An exceptionally attractive vase from the famous Znaim ceramics manufactory in present-day Czech Republic, made around 1900 in pure Art Nouveau style. The vase has a classic basic s...
Ceramic
Large Doulton Lambeth 23" Vase by Arthur Barlow
By Arthur Barlow
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Beautiful large 23" Doulton Lambeth Vase featuring intricate incised floral and foliate designs in tonal colors. The elaborate decoration combines elements of the Gothic Revival an...
Ceramic
$3,063Sale Price|20% Off
H 12.8 in W 7.49 in D 7.49 in
Antique Flaminian Vase, Art Nouveau, Moorcroft, Liberty, London, Edwardian, 1910
Located in Hele, Devon, GB
This is an antique Flaminian vase. An English, ceramic baluster flower vase in Art Nouveau taste by William Moorcroft (1872-1945) for Liberty of London, dating to the Edwardian perio...
Ceramic
Wedgwood Lustre Vase by Daisy Makeig-Jones, Iridescent, Circa 1914
Located in Toronto, CA
This is a stunning Wedgwood lustre vase, circa 1914, designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones. The flared form vase has an iridescent overglaze on a pale blue ground, and is decorated with intricately detailed, swirling dragons in gold on all four sides. The inside of the vase has a gilded border featuring Oriental scenes of pagodas and gardens, below which are four mythical birds which seem to float in magical suspension over the pale green glaze of the interior. Daisy Mekeig-Jones apprenticed at Wedgwood in 1909 and only two years later, by 1911, she had started to create her own designs at the factory. In 1913 she started designing the Oriental dragon patterns seen here, and by 1915 she had begun the Fairyland lustre ware for which she would become famous. These designs became incredibly popular and helped boost the company's success after the first world war. This beautiful vase, particularly with its fanciful bird-like creatures floating whimsically on the inside, feels like a true precursor to the Fairyland lustreware...
Porcelain
Alfredo Santarelli Ceramics Vase Maiolica hand-glazed Italy 1920s
Located in Palermo, IT
Valuable Majolica bowl vase with metallic lustre, cornucopia, bust of a woman and ochre leafy scrolls on a blue background. Italian manufacture from the 1920s by Alfredo Santarelli, ...
Ceramic
Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre Butterfly Women Trumpet Vase
By Daisy Makeig-Jones
Located in Chelmsford, Essex
Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre trumpet vase decorated in the Butterfly Women pattern. This pattern features winged and robed female figures, perched in a blossoming tree. The interior of ...
Ceramic
