B for Bedroom

I love the simplicity of this CV pattern candlestick.  It was thrown from a grey stoneware in 1921 or '22 and has a painters mark CT or GT and pattern number is B268.  I learned only recently that the letter prefix to these early pattern numbers are thought to refer to the ultimate destination of the pottery, A for Architectural, D for decorative, T for tableware and B for bedroom.

JC luminous Grey and Beige

I found this plate a while ago, but for some reason never posted a photo.  It was painter by Eileen Prangnell in the early 1930's. It's a pattern that is given an almost iridescent lift by the grey and beige colouring. The geometric boarder also found its way onto my favourite JC pattern egg cups

Line and Lines

Here's a second plate, this time won fairly recently on eBay. Shape number 418, GW pattern, painted by Ruth Gough in the late 20's or early 30's.
Poole Pottery from this period nearly always has fine crazing. I'm not sure how long after firing it would take for this to develop but this crazing, while possibly adding to their charm, does make these pots pretty impractical for use as tableware. The crack like lines in the center of this plate, I think, are also craze lines, that have formed over an area of the white slip decoration that is thicker than elsewhere.  They are deep and wide enough to feel on the surface, but there's no sign of them on the reverse that you might expect to see with spider cracks.

Great for Cakes

This footed shallow bowl or possible cake stand was sold as the other half of lot 18 at A E Dowse's last sale in Sheffield.  Shape number 495, just under 10 inches in diameter and a couple of inches high with the pedestal, it's painted in KM patter by Ethel Barrett in the mid 1920's.
This is the first of 3 plates I have that I've been a bit slow to post photos of - others to follow.

100 Years Ago - Where it all began

I stretched myself a little to buy this vase from eBay last week.  It's just over 5 inches tall and made from a white stoneware.  The base has been left unturned and you can feel all the trowing ridges that have been unevenly covered in a white tin glaze, then painted by a slightly wobbly hand.  There's no shape number or pattern code, but just the painted mark used by Anne Hatchard (1918-36), and a CARTER & CO stamp that I imagine was more commonly used on their tiles.  Dating to about 1918, vases like this were the forerunners of all that was to follow at Poole Pottery over the next couple of decades.
I'm very chuffed to own it and can see it being my favorite vase for quite a while.

Waiting Room 1950's

I think if you'd spent any time at all in the super stylish Poole Pottery visitors' waiting room, you might well want to buy a postcard to remember it by.  On the back we're reassured that this is a genuine photo, but I wonder if the visitors are genuine or are members of staff acting the part.

Outdone Myself

I won this vase today with a commission bid left at A.E. Dowse Auctioneers in Sheffield.  As it happened, I arrived at the sale in person just in time to see this lot sell for half its estimate, which put enough doubt in my mind that the vase was mine, that I ended up bidding against myself.  Luckily for just one bid higher.
Still it's well worth it.  It needs a little bit of a clean, but it's a grey glazed TO pattern vase, painted by Ethel Barrett between 1922 and 1924.  It also has quite a novel shape number 2021/2. I've never seen a vase marked with a fraction shape number before, but there's some sense to it as the 202 shape number is a fat round shaped twin handled vase, whereas this one is a similar height but half as wide.

Curious

This shape 41 pin dish was decorated by Carolyn Wills using a wax resist technique.  I've not seen its likes before but on the reverse is a pattern code ABC, which together with the leafy pattern I think suggests this dish is from the Dorset range designed by Ros Sommerfelt in 1977.

Boots of Spanish Leather,

Or a restless farewell, to the last of my 1950's Poole?
Most of the Freeform and Contemporary Poole Pottery I've collected (and I never that much really) was sold a few years ago.  So the last few pieces of 1950's Poole look increasingly out of place among  the ever growing numbers of my much busier Art Deco or Delphis pots I'm collecting.  So off they go to eBay, together with this UIL "Slits" pattern, cruet set painted by Gwen Haskins.

Murano Paperweight

I bought this Murano Glass paperweight from my friend Sheila at the Sheffield Antiques Emporium last weekend.  I don't know much about Murano Glass, but thought this paperweight would look good on my desk.  I had no idea how well it would photograph.