Nursery Ware

Southland Times, Issue 20661, 17 April 1929, Page 13

Nursery Ware

London. It is a bold parent who decides quite firmly in advance what her child really likes. To how many of us has not some small person administered a rude shock in the lukewarm reception he or she has given to a toy which we bought because we thought it was so good or so clever. The child, though obviously struggling to be politely enthusiastic, has unwittingly shown that it is quite unimpressed or even frankly disappointed. "What pictures would you like to see on your nursery table ware?” The question was put to a small girl of eight years. She was provided with a box of crayons and encouraged, but not actually helped, to draw the designs she imagined she would best like on her porridge plate, her cup and saucer, and all the rest of her table appointments. The result was what one might expect from a maiden of eight years. On the bread and butter plate she decided for a large-size perambulator pushed by a diminutive Nannie and a small size in dogs. Lest you misunderstand the unsophisticated caricature, she labelled it "Pram” and "Dog.” And so on with the ships, the houses, and the other simple objects which she drew for the other pieces of the set. Each drawing was signed "Joan Shorter, aged 8.” Now this little girl happens to be the daughter of a director of a Staffordshire pottery, and Joan's father decided that if his own child would be amused by seeing her own art at breakfast time, these unrestrained expressions of a child would also amuse other kiddies. Hence the latest idea in baby' table ware. These quaint drawings, the very essence of humour to both the adult and the childish mind, appear on the various items, no two being exactly alike. The china itself is white, and the decorations reproduced in bright colours, with the slightly uneven depth of tone that is made by a crayon in a child’s hand. So instead of a grown artist's ideas on the sort of fantasies that a child likes and understands, we have a child drawing for children. I shall be surprised if the reaction of other children who see this novel ware upon their table is not “Why, I can draw that, too!” —“Ann Mears.”