"Moby Dick" Large round platter

Rockwell Kent enjoyed a reputation as a decidedly modernist artist, known for both his stark landscapes and seascapes extolling the majestic Maine coast, and for his strong black and white illustrative prints. The stark linearity of Kent’s ink drawings and wood block prints were especially suited to book illustration. In 1926, he was commissioned to provide the illustrations for a special edition of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The illustrations conveyed the deep psychological drama of Melville’s narrative in Kent’s inimitable stark style. When the edition was published in 1930, the book sold out almost immediately, and gave the novel its first well-deserved critical and popular acclaim since its original publication in 1851.

Capitalizing on the popularity of Moby Dick, the owner of Vernon Kilns approached the artist sometime in the early 1930s. Kent agreed to design three services, one of which was an adaptation of his line drawings for Moby Dick. Yet the artist did not re-use or even adapt any of those illustrations. Rather, as seen on this large platter, he developed new designs and perhaps responding to a request by the manufacturer, his designs for the dinnerware mainly portray the Pequod under full sail and do not convey any of the drama, disquiet, or danger present in the book illustrations, but are somewhat benign.