Poole Delphis Jardiniere Christine Tate

Everything may look the same size on here, but this is a giant pot. Shape number 80 its 20.5cm tall and 21.5cm wide.  Painted by Christine Tate who worked at Poole between 1964 and 1970, this shape was in production only from 1966 to 1968.  I've got a real soft spot for the earlier yellow Delphis pots and on this one I really like the painterly style and the little flashes of aqua-blue.

This was on eBay last week from another collector based in Yorkshire (there seem to be quite a few) so I was able to drive over to pick it up and avoid the anxiety of having it posted.

Twintone C54

This set of four, Streamline, Twintone egg cups came from eBay.  They are in the Sepia and Mushroom colour pairing coded C54, which is just about my least favourite, but was the first glaze pair put together at Poole back in 1936.  The Streamline Tableware shapes were designed by John Adams a year before.

I think, when collecting anything, you start to get ideas about how the collection should look - it's probably not possible to get an example of everything ever produced so you have to be a bit selective. With Twintone I have my favourite colour combination - in which I would like every shape, and I decided to collect one shape in which I'd like to get every colour.  This started out with preserve jars, where the lids are one colour the bodies another.  I was a bit uneasy though, as with this way of separating the colours, there was nothing really to keep the right coloured lid on the right base.  It's taken me a while to come round to a change of plan, but I've now settled on egg cups, where the two colours are all on the same piece and here you get 4 for your money and a tray thrown in too.

Robert Jefferson Oven-to-Tableware range

This is the larger or two fish baking dishes from the Lucullus Oven-to-tableware range designed by Robert Jefferson in 1961.  Poole tableware was traditionally fired at a fairly high temperatures, but raising this further meant these earthenware dishes could withstand use in domestic ovens. The clay is semi-vitrified and has the feel and sound almost of an enamel tin tray as much as pottery.  The pattern was silkscreen printed and then hand coloured.  This dish was on a stall at the Elsecar Antiques Fair a couple of Sundays ago.  All I need do now is  to start cooking.

Jam Pot 288/LT

I Found this LT Pattern Jam Pot at the Elsecar Antiques Fair (between Sheffield and Barnsley) just before Christmas.  It was painted by Marjorie Batt between 1925 and 1934. I really like this pattern and have a few other small pots just like it.  But I also need to keep an eye on how much room I've got at home and probably can't afford to keep too many examples of the same pattern.  So I'll be listing this one on eBay later today.

Bokhara vase 674/1 JB

I'd just about given up on ever been able to photograph these JB pattern Sapphire Blue and Black Bokhara pots against black backgrounds, but I think I've just about managed it!

The Bokhara range of vases and jars was developed by Robert Jefferson in 1964.  They're all hand thrown shapes and hand painted.  This particular vase comes in 2 sizes this one 674/1 is 5 1/2 inches tall and I found it on eBay this week: The larger one 674/2 is a bit of a whopper at 8 inches and joined my collection, at twice the size but half the price, from eBay about a year ago.

I've also got a butter dish and two different shaped preserve jars all in this same Sapphire Blue and Black glaze to I just need to see if I can pull off using the black background one more time.

Contemporary Pattern Cheese Dish GBG

I've been delaying this post as I liked the last one so much and didn't want to knock it off the top spot too soon. But it could only wait so long and this isn't exactly chopped liver.
I've got a few of these contemporary pattern Cheese dishes recently.  This one is GBG or "basket" pattern.  It's one of the "Contemporary" patterns designed by Anne Read in 1956 or '57 and as well as blue this particular pattern also comes in green, purple or a red/brown.

Perfect Art Deco Chinoiserie

One of the nice things about Art Deco is the way it incorporated motifs found on older artefacts, usually from more exotic cultures.  They were particularly heavy on Ancient Egypt (which isn't surprising given the excitement of the tomb discoveries  in the preceding years - Tutankhamun's tomb was excavated in 1922).

Poole Pottery in the, 20's and 30's was no exception to this and the pots abound with Ancient Egyptianesk decoration.  But this jug looks elsewhere, like the sightly "willow pattern" look of the early FX  bluebird pattern, this jug has the most gorgeous Chinese inspired decoration.  It's fantastically well designed and painted, with very narrow bands of overlapping colour that really start to sing in places.
I find it hard not to get over excited by this one.  So coming down to earth, the pattern is LP, shape number 905, which makes it about 5 inches tall, thrown in red earthenware.  It's in factory fresh condition, really quite rare and came to me from eBay this week.

Delphis 8 Inch Plate Margaret Anderson

This plate came from another Delphis collector via eBay last week.  Shape no. 3, it was painted by Margaret Anderson probably in 1967.  I think this one has just about the right amount of oxidation to the green glaze to leave nice areas of transparent green, but edged with black.

Jimmy Soper

This postcard dates from the late 1920's or very early 1930's.  I think it shows Jimmy Soper, but he's younger here than in other photos I've seen.  Jimmy had a long career at Poole Pottery.  He was working there in 1930 when Guy Sydenham first joined and was still turning pots at least until the late 1960's, as he was the first person that Janet Laird met when she joined Poole in 1969.  I think he was the only turner at Poole throughout this time and so would have put his hand to every single thrown vase that came out of the factory.  

The card reads  - "Turning the Base of the Pot on the Lathe" - and on the back "After the shape has been "thrown" on the potter's wheel, it is put on a Lathe and the base is made true by turning off some of the clay to make a foot."  

There are six cards in this set - I have three so far.

Delphis footed Bowl Irene Kerton

This bowl dates from 1969.  It was painted by Irene Kerton who worked at Poole from 1968 to 69 and the 7"  diameter footed bowl shape (no. 39) was only made between 1969 and 1970.  

It was listed on eBay just before Xmas and in a bit of a bad run it arrived along with some other pots with damage, in this case, with a hairline crack.  It's quite possible that the seller didn't know it was damaged and with enough on over the holidays, and it been the season of good will, I didn't  bother to quibble this time.

Poole Contour Pottery Chimney Cruet

These Twintone salt, pepper and mustard pots are cast in the shape of traditional pottery kiln chimneys.  The colour is Peach Bloom and Seagull (C97).

A couple of old photos from my new book

I couldn't resist posting a couple of these any longer.  I've not seen either of these images before.  Other photos from my little 1968 visitors guide are reproduced in other publications but these are new to me.  

The top I think shows Thelma Bush, spraying glaze on a pot.  I've seen another photos of Thelma with a similar hair style, but please anyone correct me if anyone you know different. 

The bottom photo is captioned "The automatic cup making machine which produces 600 cups per hour" - I wonder if this was a recent acquisition at the time the guide was written. It certainly seems to be the source of considerable pride.

Potting at Poole

The latest addition to my growing Poole Pottery Library. This little 14 page visitors guide is packed full of optimism and pride and little snippets of information to be added to my website at some point.  There are also lovely period photos of the workers that I hope to identify and maybe post if I can brave any copyright anxieties. No publication date is given but the contents date it to between 1966 and '68.

Pots and post don't always mix

I really like the pots that Jean Millership painted.  They're often very expressive and use colour and texture to good effect.  So I was pleased to win this sweetdish on eBay just before Christmas.  This particular work of art would have been painted in about 1968.  It's such a shame that it had survived in perfect condition over the past 50 years until it was posted to me.  It doesn't happen often but it's always sad when it does.

Janet Parker Laird

I've recently been in touch with Janet Parker Laird.  Janet joined Poole Pottery in 1969 and was supervisor of the Delphis section between 1970 and 1975.  I hope to add some of the information, that Janet kindly imparted about her time at Poole, into my website over the coming weeks.  Janet now has her own studio where she is producing some stunning pieces, like the magnificent 14 inch charger above. Janet sent me this photo as unfortunately the plate isn't in my collection! More of her work can be seen on her blog [link here].