Smallest of Four Bokhara Storage Jars

I've had this little lidded pot in my collection for quite a while, but never posted a photo on here. This jar is hand-thrown in shape 659 and painted in JC patten.

 

Crocodile Tears

I love his square shaped dish, shape number 364. It dates from the mid to late 1950's and is less common than it's oblong counterpart 316, shown in the previous post, that remained in production through the 1960's and 70's for the Delphis and Aegean ranges. The pattern is UFT aka Tears pattern and was painted by Sheila Jenkins. Anyway, I thought for a change I might post a personal note. Though thinking about the title for this post, I'm not sure if the tears might be genuine. I've been working in the NHS for 16 years now but will be handing in my notice in the next few weeks. I never imagined how happy I would feel doing that. I've been offered another job elsewhere and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from me. But I'm sorry too. I think most people start working in the NHS for pretty selfless reasons. But i'm not sure many other employers treat their staff with more contempt. It's strange how, as a nation, we could imagine ending up with a more caring workforce by increasing targets, monitoring and workload and freezing pay and cutting pensions. Anyway, I'm glad to be out of it, until I get old and sick and need it again, if it's still there.

 

Onion Rings

This dish dates from the 1950's. The pattern UOT, also referred to as Onions, was designed by Ruth Paveley and used on Free form vases at the time. This particular dish was painted by June March.

 

Wonderful Elsecar

I found this rare old jam pot at last Sunday's antiques fair held at the Elsecar Industrial Museum. The stall holder told me that it has been sold, in a mixed box, at an auction in North Yorkshire a few days before. It's a less common shape (no. 286) than the rounder no. 288 jam pot, and it's painted in the same fantastic YM chevron pattern as this vase, which joined my collection just a few weeks ago.  This beauty is marked with the :) mark for Dorothy James and dates from the late 1920's.

Posted with Blogsy

BX Bug-Eyes Pattern

There are lots of reasons why this vase will not be living under the bed.  For one thing, since it arrived in the post today, fresh from eBay, it will need to stand for quite a while, in a prime spot, on the mantelpiece, so I can keep on admiring it.   For another, at close to 10 inches tall, I don't think it would fit under the bed. And then even if it did fit,  imagine how frightening it would be having those bug eyes staring out at you.  

I love this Truda Carter BX pattern, also referred to as "Bug Eyes".   It has a great balance of colours, that are crammed into the whole vase surface.  It has a simple, but maybe one of the most effective top borders, and the main pattern is absolutely bristling with movement.  This is high Art Deco painted by Ruth Paveley in the early 1930's.

Troublesome Numbers

This Aegean vase is also painted by Diana Davis and, although quite different in shape to the one in previous post, it also has the same shape number (31). The trainspotter (or maybe Trekkie) in me really is unsettled by this anomaly. This particular shape 31 is slip-cast rather than hand-thrown,and there's at least one other slip-cast no. 31 shape that I've seen, either in Aegean and Delphis glazes (many of the same shapes were used for both ranges. Worse still, it's not only 31 that does this shape-shifting: 83, 84 and no doubt 85 are all equally plastic. The only way I've been able to put my mind (and need for order) at ease, is to tell myself that these numbers refer to the vase size and not the shape. 31 is a size number - and to be doubly safe both vases are now going away, back under then bed.

Another Rummaged Pot

This Aegean vase has been hiding under the bed for a couple of years now.   It was hand-thrown, (shape number 31, 10 cm tall) and decorated, using the "silhouette" technique, in a swirly style that is typical of many  Aegean designes.  Signed on the underside by Diana Davis, it dates to between 1973 and 1978.

A Wet Weekend Rummage

The plan for shifting my collection towards bigger, better and inevitably fewer pots might be working a bit too well.  In contrast to the weather outside, there seems to have been a complete drought in Poole.  Fortunately, the years of squirreling pots away under beds might finally have paid off, with a weekend of rummaging and photographing producing quite a stash of new pictures to post over the coming weeks.  

The first is a little 7 cm tall jug, with no shape number, made in the early to middle 1960's and glazed in Twin-tone colours Lime Yellow and Seagull (C103). 

580/NA

Usually the more undecorated surface a Poole vase has, the less well it looks.  But the NA pattern on this distinctive Poole shape works perfectly with the "chimney" portion left white. 16.5cm tall, 580 is the largest of, I think, 3 similar shapes (through the numbers 850, 581 and 853, suggest there might be a fourth middle-sized one).  The vase was painted by Hilda Hampton between 1927 and 1934.

Here's a little bit more of the same pattern

With a more colourful version here

Poole Pottery Pepper Pot

More of those tricky to paint circles on this little 2 inch tall pepper pot.  Painted by Vera Bridle in the late 1920's or early 30's, shape number 298 and pattern JH.