“The teapot is a satire on what was seen at the time as the ‘affectation’ of the Art for Art’s Sake movement; the self-styled ‘sensible’ and ‘manly’ world of the Victorian mainstream press saw Aesthetes as effete poseurs. Both the male and female depicted by the Royal Worcester teapot are dressed in stereotypical Aesthetic clothing, reflecting the popularity of what Gilbert and Sullivan satirised as the “greenery-yallery” colours (such as sage green and mustard yellow) that were so popular amongst Aesthetes, and the lily and sunflower so delicately modelled here were the two iconic floral symbols of the Aesthetic ‘craze’ of the late 1870s and early 1880s. However, the teapot does not only refer to the Aesthetic craze of the time. Underneath is an inscription which reads: “Fearful consequences through the laws of Natural Selection and Evolution of Living up to one’s Teapot”. This inscription was a satirical comment both on Oscar Wilde’s tongue-in-cheek quip about his blue and white china, and also on the hysterical fears circulating in the 1880s about the effects that effeminacy and the blurring of gender roles might have on the future British population.” - Dr. Sally-Anne Huxtable, Principal Curator, Modern and Contemporary Design, National Museum Scotland