Exhibition at the Grieves Gallery in 1926

I wonder if this card was sold at the Grieves Gallery, Old Bond Street, London.  That's the address given on the front of this postcard anyway and on the back is reads, "Poole Pottery has gained many distinctions at international exhibitions including two Diplomes d'honneur at the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs at Paris." It also says, "Visitors are admitted to the Works to see the Pottery being made" and "This is a real Photograph" in case perhaps that people didn't believe their eyes.

Merry Christmas

Perhaps festive looking, or at least colourful, I've had this shape no.4 Delphis plate painted by Loretta Leigh for quite a few months and today is the day to share it.  Latter in date, at 1970, than a lot of the Delphis ware on this blog, it's the blue colour that makes it for me.

Pots in Sheds

I think there's something about big, relatively plain pots, and maybe especially jugs, that can lead them on a road of social decline, ending at some point, to them spending time in the garden shed.
It seems that may have happened to this whopping 2 1/2 pinter, at least judging by the dirt in the bottom.  Its made from stoneware and dates from the early 1920's.  Has a shape number T315, but no decorators mark or pattern name.
It came from Ebay last week and has cleaned up quite nicely, but in doing so has also revealed the hairline flaw that probably led to it's original fall from grace.  So a disappointing buy, but in it's dirty state I'm sure the seller wouldn't have seen any damage and sold it quite honestly, and it's future now rest in my green fingers.

Dorset

When I found this jam pot at Lincoln last week, I thought I new exactly what I was looking at, but now I'm a bit less sure. I'ts signed by Cynthia Bennett and is also marked with shape number 375 ABA, it has a factory mark used between 1970 and 1999.  I thought I had finally found my first pot from the Dorset range that Poole made in the late 1970's, but this pattern is quite different to the ABA pattern show in the Hayward and Atterbury book.  I'd love to hear from anyone who can tell me more.

BBC, Well Done!

It's nothing to do with this Shape 81 Delphis plate that came to me from eBay a couple of months ago. But on and off through the day I've been watching the BBC tributes to Nelson Mandala.  And as the day's gone on I've begun to recognise the pivotal role the BBC played in freeing him from prison and in ending apatheid in South Africa.  

Although my memory of BBC reporting, at least during the 1980's, is at odds with this, it now seems possible that Nelson Mandela political philosophy was based on stuff that the BBC told him. And the BBC also created Dr Who and saved the world from Daleks.

Atlantis Fantasy

There may be a danger of any blog degenerating into a series of sad self-disclosures, but I'm not going to let that put me off.  Mainly because I think on this occasion my fantasy might be shared,in one form or another, by most collectors.
There's not much of a story-line to this fantasy, it starts with me spotting some rare and valuable object in the bottom of a skip or in a jumble sale or charity shop and ends with me taking it home.  But I think the subject, Poole Atlantis ware, just fits the tale so well, with it's brown lumpiness,  I can imagine lots of collectors of Royal Worcester or Spode, completely passing it by, or throwing it into the skip in the first place.
Of course there's not much chance of my fantasy ever been realised (I never seem to have time to get round charity shops and I've not looked in a skip since giving up my allotment a year ago), but I thought I came close to it on Monday at the Lincoln Show Ground this week.  Surrounded by a mix of other, much more shiny, pots, the little vase above stood out like a rose among thorns for any collector of Poole.  I was right there at the start of my fantasy, with the bubble being bust only when if became apparent that the stall holder had knew all about Poole and was asking a realistic price for her vase.  Anyway, I still got to take it home, and money aside, I did still find it in a field in Lincolnshire.
Shape number A2/2, potted by Beatrice Bolton between 1972 and '74.

Come and Buy Me

Today (at least) I managed to resist the collective pressure of online retailers and TV media "news" reports, and not shop online during "Cyber Monday".  

Instead me and a friend visited the antiques fair at the Lincoln Show Ground: The results of which I'll photograph and post pictures here in the next few days.  Until then, it's high time I shared this jam pot that came from eBay a month or so ago.    

It was made in 1921 or '22 from grey coloured stoneware, covered unevenly with a grey glaze and decorated with repeated "sprigs" of blue flowers, with a pattern code H.  The shape number T288 is the same as the later and much more refined shape of jam pot Poole made throughout the later '20s and '30s. But here the bowl is more barrel like, the lid much more flat in profile, and there's no teardrop shaped finial.

It does feel like it comes from a more simple and less commercial time.  Which in 1921 must have been the very impression the makers intended.