Vignettes

A small category of Aesthetic transferware is dedicated to depicting vignettes of people and landscapes. These scenes usually focus on non-Western life (particularly Japan and China), British life, and Europe's past (particularly Ancient Greece/Rome and the Middle Ages). In typical Aesthetic fashion, the depictions of non-Western life often conflate different cultures and countries and are not wholly accurate.

Again, Japanese woodblock prints were perhaps the greatest inspiration for the images of non-Western life, as many of the most sought after prints at the time featured boldly-colored landscapes and images of people conducting their everyday lives.

The vignettes of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages focused less on art and more on literature, taking inspiration from Greek and Roman myths, stories like Aesop's fables, and novels such as Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1879).

A great number of Aesthetic transferware also feature idyllic scenes of British life and landscape. Some of these featured images from leading Aesthetic artists/designers, such as Christopher Dresser, Kate Greenaway (1846-1871), John Moyr Smith (1839-1912), and Owen Gibbons.