I’m at Derby Museum and Art Gallery to see The Enlightenment exhibition. My friend, artist Jane Pepper is showing her exquisite assemblages and prints amongst the natural history collection.
As I work my way around the exhibition opening drawers and discovering things, I’m surprised to come across landscape views on Derby porcelain. What a coincidence! I learn that it became fashionable to drink tea and coffee in the late 18thC and country houses made collections of the decorative china.
The yellow tea set in Lincoln came from Chatsworth House. It shows no evidence of being used. More likely it was displayed to show the owners had good taste in art and appreciated quality workmanship.
I have a picture with me of one of the plates which shows Derby Cathedral in the distance with a large area of grass and trees in the forground. Circling around the Cathedral on foot, I try to get as far as possible from it before it’s obscured by other buildings. I take my photograph which is nothing like the image on the plate.
A popular place with the Derby painters was an area called The Meadows. The meadows have gone. All that is left is a pub of that name surrounded by an industrial estate.
