‘Lady Charlotte’ is one of a set of three plates in lined tiffin tins by Stephen Dixon. Made in response to York Art Gallery’s painting Lady Charlotte Fitzroy and Her Indian Page, 1669-79, by Sir Peter Lely (YORAG : 18). Lady Charlotte, a stereotypical English rose, is highlighted in gold, the universal signifier of status and prestige. Text from a treatise by Mahatma Gandhi overlies the image of an elephant, which symbolises the strength and success of Gandhi’s passive resistance to British rule, itself symbolised by the battleship at bottom left.
Press–moulded earthenware plates, lead glazed with under-glaze slip decoration, on-glaze printed transfers, open stock transfers and gold lustre.
Sheet steel ‘tiffin boxes’, custom-made by artisans in Ahmedabad, India.
Quilted textile box liners, made at the Gramshree organisation in Ahmedabad. (Calico textiles re-cycled from block-printing table covers, sourced in Ahmedabad.)
