Recently picked up this dazzlingly Art Deco jewellery box from Kempton Antique Market

  
 I love the dynamic hand painted graphics – design depicting movement and vitality was typical of that era, in part perhaps because people were trying to move on from the war and an exotic, decadent aesthetic style that embraced progression and speed was a natural outlet for this.

It’s probably no coincidence that Surrealism was also at it’s height during this period; maybe a real ruling characteristic of that period was of seeking a departure from the real and conscious world.  This is probably from the late 20’s / early 1930’s.

This design reminded me of some of the work in the Vorticism movement 10/15 years before.  Their angular shapes earlier on in the Modernist were an obvious pre-cursor for Art Deco’s distinctive graphic style.

This piece is by Wyndham Lewis from around 1915