Ceramics by Jessie Marion King
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Glasgow Museums has a significant collection of 69 hand-painted ceramic items produced by Jessie Marion King (1875–1949) from her studio at Greengate, Kirkcudbright between 1919 and 1939. This collection holds a variety of tableware including a tea set, teapots, a teapot stand, cups, saucers, bowls, jugs, plates, egg cups, a pepper cellar, a tureen and a honeycomb box. Other items include vases and vessels, ornamental dishes, a wall-mounted flower pocket and shaving mugs. There is also an unusual mosaic panel made from coloured and mirrored glass. Some of these pieces are titled on the base and all but one piece is signed with her ceramic signature 'JMK'. The ceramic blanks used include earthenware from David Methven's pottery in Kirkcaldy – operational until 1928 – and Czechoslovakian porcelain. King's hand-painted ceramic decoration covers the entire body of the vessel and ranges from a variety of flowers and foliage – either imaginary or naturalistic – to pictorial scenes. Themes focus on floral gardens with pixies or birds and underwater and ocean scenes with sea fairies or mermaids, ships and sailors. Rhymes, stories and poems are also illustrated and often quoted. King taught ceramic decoration at The Glasgow School of Art between 1906 and 1907 and this collection demonstrates the stylistic evolution of her later work between the wars. Her earlier pieces are characterized by dark-coloured floral patterns while her later pieces use bright overglaze with a more spaciously designed arrangement.
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