Plate with cat’s face and paws

The Omega Workshops Ltd (1913–1919) sold homewares designed and made by artists. It was established in London by Roger Fry (1866–1934), in association with younger artists in the Bloomsbury Group, Vanessa Bell (1879–1961) and Duncan Grant (1885–1978). The Omega sought to bring avant-garde art into British homes and provide regular paid work for struggling artists. Opened on the eve of the First World War, it soon became a centre for pacifist resistance, holding concerts, publishing books, and celebrating international artistic collaboration.

One of the Omega’s specialities was ceramics. At first, artists painted directly on to ordinary commercial plates. Here, the artist Duncan Grant was inspired by the style of Fauve arists in France who produced colourful and painterly ceramics in the early 1900s.