Atonement is a 2007 movie about love thwarted by the jealous misunderstanding of a little girl. It stars Keira Knightly, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Vanessa Redgrave, Benedict Cumberbatch and Saoirse Ronan.
The story is rather complex but begins in England shortly before the start of WWII at the manor home of a wealthy family. The eldest daughter in the home, played by Keira Knightly, falls in love with James McAvoy, the son of a servant on the property. When two children staying with the family for the weekend fail to appear for dinner one evening the younger daughter in the family, played by Saoirse Ronan, runs to the children’s room to get them and discovers that they've run away.
It is when the young girl goes to retrieve an explicit letter written by McAvoy to Knightly that we see the majolica in the children's bedroom. Sitting on the dresser is a large piece of continental ware that looks very much like the work of Schiller & Son.
There's no way to know for sure of course but the color palette is very much in keeping with the work of WS&S. It could just as easily, of course, be the work of one of the other continental potteries of Bohemia many of whom favored subdued earth tones to the brighter colors of English and French ware.
The story is rather complex but begins in England shortly before the start of WWII at the manor home of a wealthy family. The eldest daughter in the home, played by Keira Knightly, falls in love with James McAvoy, the son of a servant on the property. When two children staying with the family for the weekend fail to appear for dinner one evening the younger daughter in the family, played by Saoirse Ronan, runs to the children’s room to get them and discovers that they've run away.
It is when the young girl goes to retrieve an explicit letter written by McAvoy to Knightly that we see the majolica in the children's bedroom. Sitting on the dresser is a large piece of continental ware that looks very much like the work of Schiller & Son.
There's no way to know for sure of course but the color palette is very much in keeping with the work of WS&S. It could just as easily, of course, be the work of one of the other continental potteries of Bohemia many of whom favored subdued earth tones to the brighter colors of English and French ware.
The disappearance of the children leads to a series of events that makes the young girl mistakenly believe that the explicit letter James McAvoy’s character wrote is proof of his responsibility for the rape of one of the other household guests that same evening. Her turning over the explicit letter to the police and his subsequent arrest based on the testimony of the little girl changes the lives of all in the group. The title comes from a book, written by the little girl, now an adult and in her old age, about how the events of that night led to tragedy for her, her sister and the young man she loved.
The movie is both beautiful and heartbreaking and this little dab of majolica is just enough distraction from the storyline to make the remaining sadness all bearable.
If any readers are familiar with the piece or its manufacturer we would love to hear about it.
To view the Atonement trailer go here.
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