Pedestal table, 1884
This hand-painted porcelain tabletop depicts the portraits of William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) heroines within pages of curling paper by the artist Hilda Brodie.
The profile portrait in the centre is that of Juliet from Romeo and Juliet (1597). The laughing woman is Anne Page from The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602). Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra (c.1607) is wearing a gold headdress. The woman wearing a nun’s wimple is Isabelle from Measure for Measure (c1603-1604).
Anne Boleyn from the history play Henry VIII (1623), co-authored by John Fletcher, is depicted looking upwards. The woman with flowers in her hair is Ophelia from Shakespeare’s longest play Hamlet (c. 1599-1601). The last portrait is that of Kate from The Taming of the Shrew (c.1590-1592). The table was bought by the father of the donor from the London International Exhibition of 1884.
