Wall plaque decorated with a painted design of a winged male angel in flight, holding a trumpet against the moon or sun and stars to a blue ground, initialled and dated to the reverse J.G.J. Nov 11th 1884.
The design may refer to the seven angels with trumpets as described in the Bible (Revelation 8:6-12), with this the fourth angel who blew his trumpet causing one-third of the light from the Sun, moon and stars to be dimmed, leaving one-third of the day and night in darkness.
Mark: Impressed SALOPIAN “diamond” mark
Diameter: 255mm / 10in
Date: 1884
John George Mowbray Jeffrey, 1867–1954
John George Mowbray Jeffrey, born Manchester 1867. The Jeffrey family moved to Madeley, Shropshire, c.1869–70, and census records show them as living first at Market Square, Madeley, (1871), and then at Court Street, Madeley, (1881).
A student at the Coalbrookdale School of Art, Jeffrey was awarded a silver medal and the Owen Jones Prize in 1883 (Wellington Journal, 1 September 1883; Building News, 7 September 1883), and a silver medal, the Owen Jones Prize, the Queen’s Prize and a national book prize in 1884 (Wellington Journal, 1 March 1884).
In the 1891 census, he was at Shooting Butt Lane, Madeley, and was working for a decorative tile maker. Two leading makers of decorative tiles, Maw & Co and Craven Dunnill & Co, had their factories nearby at Jackfield, and it may have been at one of these companies where Jeffrey's interest in tiles and surface design began.
By 1901 he was married, and had moved to Burslem, Staffordshire, where he worked as a tile designer for the MarsdenTiles Company Ltd (Wellington Journal, 23 March 1901). Ten years later, in 1911, he was an artist designer and manager in a decorative tile business, and in the 1921 census he is described as a tile manufacturer and employer.
He died in 1954, at Hereford.
Several examples of JGM Jeffey's work are known to exist, all identified by his name or initials. They are all plates/plaques with hand-painted designs, two of which are currently known (as at 2024) to be painted onto pieces of Salopian Art Pottery.
Provenance: Private collection, UK
Image © Fieldings Auctioneers, Stourbridge, June 2021 (Lot 752)