A Little Extra

This one and a half inch tall pot was included in the same Woolley and Wallis auction lot, as the lustre vase I posted on Saturday. Cared for just as well, it is shape number 570, RS pattern painted by Doris Marshall,who started working at Poole in 1926.  It's an unglazed (on the exterior) pot in the style of James Radley Young, designed by Truda Carter.

A Little Jaded?

I went to the antiques fair at Keddlestone Hall near Derby yesterday.  It's smaller than the fairs at Newark and Lincoln, but the park of this grand country house makes a very nice venue.  I came away empty handed, as I often seem to do from fairs these days, but had more luck last week at the Woolley and Wallis auction where I won this green lustre glaze Cater & Co vase.   It was made at Poole Pottery sometime between 1908 and 1918, its pretty rare, in perfect condition and the glaze has a gorgeous petrol on water iridescence. There is a red vase of the same shape in the Haward and Atterbury book "Poole Pottery"

Filthy Sky News

I watch too much of Sky News, usually from bed in the morning in preference to the BBC 1's oddly co-presented and patronising output targeted presumably at children getting ready for school.  But tonight's Sky News disturbed me more then they usually manage.  It was a report on Iraq, that moved within a few sentences from describing a mass grave, (presumable of Iraqi soldiers), to the reporter, someone called Alistair Bunkall (appearing intrepid and maybe soon to be honoured in some media award ceremony), describing the Iraqi army as pathetic. It is unusual to hear war-dead, or victims of violence being described as pathetic, but here's the link http://news.sky.com/story/1290489/isis-massacre-tikrit-satellite-images-emerge.

Mole Hills

I thought eBay bids on theses two Poole Pottery Everest tea cups would have gone sky high.  So, although I knew they were super rare (at least I've not seen any for sale before) and stunningly Deco (in a uncompromising modern style that Poole didn't do that much), I let them go without bidding, and they sold for nothing like the mountain of cash I'd expected.

More Poole Scenes

This photo was sent to me at the weekend by Nick, a fellow collector.  The back of the plate reads, "Poole Quay is from the Poole Scenes Collection.  Taken from an original print by Poole based artist, John Liddell" and underneath "Poole quay has been renowned for it's potteries from as early as the iron age.  Also legendary for smuggling activities in the 18th Century with the Customs House at the centre of a famous raid in 1747.  Poole Harbour is reported to be the second largest natural harbour in the world, and has seen many ships, from pirate to cargo, pass through its waters."

Poole Scenes were produced in the 1980's.  I have one plate depicting the Guildhall, posted on here a while ago  http://robspoolepotterycollection.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/poole-scenes_29.html, but two don't make collection, so there must be other scenes out there.  So any more photos will be gratefully shared.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I've been trying to slim down my collection of Delphis ware in recent months.  Aiming at least, to reduce it to a size that fits the available display space.  But then I keep running into pots like this one painted by Pamela Bevans in 1970, found a couple a weeks ago at the Doncaster Racecourse fair.

Blue Stripe Ware

This is the second early Poole Pottery vase that arrived in the post this week.  Again, it's another James Radley Young design, this time painted by Ann Hatchard, right at the start of her career in about 1918.  It's 7 inches tall and appears to have inscribed writing on the base that reads no 148.
Finding all of these Carter and Co vases recently has prompted me to read again some of Jennifer Hawkins book "The Poole Potteries".  This is probably the most scholarly of the Poole reference books written. In her book Hawkins describes these pots in chapter 3 as "blue stripe ware" decorated with "plain stripes from top to bottom ...or rather more elaborate versions including diamonds and lozenges".
Reading about these early pots has also reminded me of a nice Carter & Co connection to my home city of Sheffield.  William Carter Unwin (chief sculptor in the architectural pottery) and James Radley Young, both trained at Sheffield School of Art, and Jame Radley Young's half brother Edwin Page Turner also born in Sheffield,  was the first identified painter at the Carter tile works.

Snatched from the Jaws of Defeat

I drove down the A1, first thing this morning, full of hope and excitement for what I might find at day one of the Newark antiques fair.  Three hours later, I was driving home tired and empty handed, but then, I found this vase waiting for me, in a box, on top of the wheelie bin, where the the postie had left it.  The vase had been sent by a fellow Poole collector (together with another early vase that I will share another day).  In truth I was expecting it, but it arrived a couple of days early and just in time to save the day.
And what a trophy it is, this early unglazed Carter & Co vase, designed by Jame Radley Young. It dates from around 1914 and has a bit of a pre-Columbian look (a possible influence that was fashionable at the time), with it's three slightly animal head-like handles. This very vase also appears on page 57 of the Robert Presoct-walker book "Collecting Poole Pottery"

YK Jug

From eBay last week an unglazed YK pattern jug, shape number 322, painted by Phyllis Way between 1928 and '34.