Lunchtime Reading

Although my new job (5 days a week, with far too much of that spent looking at a computer screen) may have dampened my blogging ardor, it has also given me access to a library full of Poole Pottery knowledge. This ad appeared in "The Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review" in 1932.  
Over several lunch breaks so far I've thumbed 3 or 4 years worth of the Gazette, but there's another couple of decades of back issues to keep me busy and then I get started on "Tableware International".

Poole Pottery Seagull

I thought this seagull would be mobbed on the Poole Pottery Pages of eBay last week, but it flew  into my collection with hardly any feathers flying. At 27 cm from claw to wing tip, this shape number 816/3 is the largest of 3 seagull wall plaques Poole produced.  The birds were designed and modelled by John Adams and Harry Brown in the mid 1930s and sprayed in new Picottee glazes.  I think, this particular bird dates from the late 1940's.  

Up close the bird is much bigger and more 3-dimensional than I expected, and is certainly big enough to worry anyone of a nervous disposition.  So if you didn't fancy seagulls on your wall, and prefer to eat your fish and chips in peace, you could also choose flying ducks or better still bluebirds.

Metamorphic Pot

This little Picotee soup bowl came from eBay last week.  The bowl has the same thinly thrown/cast white body as Poole Twintone tableware from this time, the lid/saucer is thrown in red earthenware.  There's a faint shape number on the bowl base - 110.  

I've never seen one like this before, but I'm really pleased to have it.  It seems very sophisticated. Although, I think, to fully appreciate it, you'd need someone to serve it at the table, lifting the lid with a flourish to reveal its double function - and the soup. Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen at my house.

Picotee Pot

I'm not sure what use this (No. 640) shape of lidded pot had. There's no spoon slot, but there is a ventilation hole. It came from eBay this week and when it arrived I was surprised that it seems to be stoneware. 

The Stripy Picotee glaze patterns were introduced in 1932,  the pot dates from about that time and this particular arrangement of coloured stripes is number 40.   I know I should have made the camera focus better, but in real life the stripe are very blurry too.

Poole Flying Bluebirds

I've had some really successful visits to antiques fairs so far this summer.  These are my latest find from the Keddleston Hall Antiques Fair in Derbyshire last week.  The small one (the fledgling) has had a hard landing at some point and lost its tail, which was badly glued when I found it.  A bit of soaking in water and rejoining and you can hardly tell now though, and even with the damage £4 for all three was a steal.

They're shape number 807/1, /2 and /3 and were designed and modelled by John Adams and Harry Brown in the mid to late 1930's and sprayed with the "Picotee" glazes (used for the stripy pots of the same name)  These particular bird's probably date from about that time, and would have been sold separately , but the 3 make up the complete set.  Seagulls and of course the ubiquitous ducks were also available from Poole, and while these were made by other potteries too, I think bluebirds would have been a unique production from the Poole Pottery, lifted, as they are, straight from the popular PB pattern on vases and pots.