Sunday 31 May 2015

DD DD

I've coveted sugar sifters for a while now, and been outbid on them  a few times.  So it was nice to win this one in the DD pattern.  The shape number is 759 I think, and it was painted Clarice Heath in the early 1930's.

Saturday 30 May 2015

DD

I like this DD pattern.  It appears here on a salt bowl, shape number 223,  painted by Hilda Hampton sometime between 1927 and 1934. It's only a little thing found on eBay a year of so ago, but recently I've found it some friends and I'll post pictures of them next.

Monday 25 May 2015

New Favourite

I love the early Carter and Co, tin glazed, Blue Stripe pots and this one, that came from eBay 2 weeks ago, is my best yet.  It's just 5 inches tall, potted from white stoneware, and has a particularly thin application of the white slip these pots were dipped in, leaving exposed much of the rough stoneware surface.  There are some thicker globs of slip around the rim, but the over all surface has a parchment quality that adds to the watercolour on paper look of the blue painted lines.  Its signed with the MC mark used by Sissey Collett.

Friday 22 May 2015

One I Hit

Sorry as I was not to win the vase shown in the previous post, I was chuffed to get this one last month: The pattern code is CE and it's a pared back version of the same pattern.  I bought it from a fellow collector on eBay.
One thing I love about this pattern, is how it exemplifies so well a Poole style that spans time, from the earliest tin glassed vases designed by James Radely Young in the 1910's, through to the contemporary patterns of the 1950's that are still so typical of their age. There's really no difference between pots made over a time of such massive change, that even forced the closure of the factory for 5 years during the second of the two world wars within it.  The pots all have the same colour glazes, the same infilled shapes and wiggly lines: Some of them were painted by the same women.
This pot has on its base the DM initials of a painter that still hasn't been identified, the shape number 353, a white spot that's possibly a trial mark and the first CSA factory stamp.

Tuesday 12 May 2015

One I Missed

There have been some lovely old Poole vases on eBay over the past few weeks.  This CF pattern vase went out of my price range before I had a chance to bid, but I pinched a sneaky photo from the listing at least.

Sunday 10 May 2015

The Model C

Willam Morris said that you should "have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."  So I feel safe with this Velos Crown "C" stapling machine on at least one account.  I found the "temporary and permanent fastening device", complete with its yellow box and copper staples, at the Elsecar Antiques fair earlier this year.

Sunday 3 May 2015

Small but Mighty

I won this vase at a recent Auction at Fryer and Browns in Surrey, thanks to an online bid.  It's a good pot, YW pattern, shape 512, painted by Ruth Pavely in the early 1930's.  The only disappointment when it arrived was that at 7 inches tall it's not quite as big as I'd imagined.  I think with pots a few inches does make a lot of difference in terms of scale and impact.But there's a lot crammed in to this pot for its size and i do like this pattern, especially with the top border.

Saturday 2 May 2015

Mystery Solved

This MC mark was used by Matilda, or as she was known back in the day Sissie, Collett.  It was identified at a recent Poole Pottery sale at Cottees Auction House in Wareham.  Sissie's family were there selling a number of pots painted by her and all carrying this MC mark. I have to thank a fellow collector from  Scotland, present at the auction, for sharing this information with me.
Sissie designed  patterns for Poole. as well as painting them.  The Hayward and Atterbury book does not show dates for when Sissie worked,  but does identify some early sprig patterns that she designed in 1921.  The pot I own that caries this MC mark http://robspoolepotterycollection.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/any-excuse also dates to 1921.