Poole Scenes

I found this plate on eBay a few months ago.  My first thoughts were that it was made very recently, and most likely in Staffordshire or China, but after some expert advice I can now happily say it was made in Poole in the 1980s.  I like the graphic look that's much like a wood cut print.

The back of the plate has the a Poole trademark that reads "Poole Scenes - the Guildhall", and the following text: "The Guildhall is from the Poole Scenes Collection. Taken from an original print by Poole based artist John Liddell.  Built in 1761, the Guildhall is a fine Georgian building constructed from red brick, white stone quoins and keystones. The guildhall has weathered many historical changes throughout its life on Market Street with the last major restoration works taking place in 1971. During the 1940's the Guildhall was converted into an American Red Cross Building."

My plate came complete with stickers on the back for £9.95 and a red one that reads REDUCED TO £5.00, so I guess it wasn't a good seller at the time.

Not to be confused with the Poole Custom House

Webbed feet at Newark

I came away empty handed from the Newark Antiques Fair yesterday.  The rain didn't put off all the traders  and there were quite a few Art Deco Poole pots there, but the ones I fancied were all a bit too expensive.  On the drive there, I did call into the local Royal Mail sorting office to collect the vase above, posted to me by another collector who had agreed to a private sale.  It's quite a rare pattern, (YM) and at 11cm tall (shape no. 311) the vase is slightly bigger than most of the little geometric pots I own, but then the pattern does, untypically, fill most of the vase area. This very vase also appears on page 60 of the Robert Prescott-Walker book Collecting Poole Pottery. I think it more than makes up for my Newark duck.

Red Star

It looked a long way off, for a long time, but I've just been given my 1000th eBay feedback and earned a red star for it.  The next milestone is a safe distance away now at 5000 and if ever I get there someone really should pull the plug.
The vase above came from eBay a couple of weeks ago.  It was thrown in a gray semi-stoneware and dates to 1921-22.  It's shape number D333, CG pattern and has an unknown painters mark which looks like an overlapping M C.  Circles are quite unusual for Poole patterns and I suspect they are especially difficult to paint well.

Eerie Glow Again

Although a good design can remain in fashion for years, some have more mixed fortunes.  I didn't know about Delphis when it was new, and hugely popular, but caught the second wave a few years ago, once it had risen again from a very deep trough.
This vase, painted by Lynn Gregory in the early 1970's, was one of my first discoveries.  I loved it, and thought it was pure 1960's/70's.  Which the decoration maybe, but in fact the vase is thrown in the same shape as the one in the previous post.  A shape that remained in production, despite being designed by John Adams over 40 years earlier.

Eerie Glow

This radiant little vase was sitting on a shelf in the Nichols Building Vintage Arts and Crafts Centre in Sheffield earlier this week.  It  is perhaps older than it looks, dating to the early 1930's, and is hand thrown, white stoneware, in a shape designed by John Adams, with an inscribed shape number 806.  But what drew me to it, like The Dear Leader to WMD, was the thick, lustrous, orange uranium glaze.  which was also developed by John Adams, about the same time that Marie Curie was conducting her more fundamental experiments with similar stuff.  I wonder how many Becquerels its emitting.

Some scary reading about uranium in ceramics




The vase has just been moved to the far side of the room!

Erna Manners Grapes Pattern

A couple of pots in this pattern have passed through my hands over the years, but this one I'm going to keep.  There are some combinations of pattern and shape that just work perfectly and in my eyes this is one of those.  The pattern seem to fit naturally, with the vine trailing along the shoulder of the vase and the grapes hanging off. The center and fattest part of the bunch of grapes also sits squarely in the fattest part of the vase giving the grapes a little extra 3-dimensionality.  There even seems to be something grape-like about the vase shape itself. Anyway the shape number is 348 (12 cm tall), and the pattern TR, painted by Vera Bridle who worked at Poole between 1923 and 1933. 

Bonus Eggcup

This CN pattern eggcup was the other good pot in the Cottees job lot.  

585/TQ

This vase came as part of a job lot from the recent Poole Pottery auction at Cottees.  I've got a few vases in this 585 shape, but the pattern TQ is new to me, and works really well on this little vase.  It was worth bidding for this vase alone so the others came as a bonus.

Eternal Flame

Watching the news over the past few days, it seems the BBC might finally have lost interest in following the Olympic Torch around the country.  A little later than the rest of us perhaps, and I fear their interest will rekindle as soon as London approaches.  Heaven only knows (or cares) where it is at the moment, but it shouldn't be too hard to track where its been by the location of the used torches being sold on eBay.  

There are better things on eBay though, and for me the eternal flame would have shone more brightly carried on this Poole night light (shape 261 painted in EQ pattern).  Though running in slippers would be quite dangerous, especially if running up stairs and you were feeling a bit sleepy.

Cottees Auction Lots

Complete with sticker, here's the largest, and first of three pots, I won at the Cottess most recent Poole Pottery Auction.  Wareham is a long way from me, but the wonders of the internet mean that auctions are now accessible from anywhere and prices, even after commission, compare well with eBay.   

I'll need to find space on my wall and a stong hanger for this No 5 plate as it measures 14 inches across. It was painted by by Shirley Campbell in the late 1960's.