Up market

There are a few different candlesticks in my collection.  Most of them are really quite rustic looking. I found this rather grand looking John Adams candlestick on a shopping trip to the Salt Mill Antiques Centre just before Christmas last year.  I've found a few really nice pots there, and I half want to keep the place secret, but when it comes to pottery I cant keep anything to myself.  The candlestick was designed between 1928 and 1929 and exhibited at the British Industries Fair in 1931. They were made in several different colours and had either one, two, three or five branches.

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.

Ruskin Yellow Lustre Candle Holder

If I didn't spend so much time collecting Poole, I might have more time for pots like this. Or maybe it's just the first of many! The base is marked England, Ruskin and a date 1914.  

Technology lite

I've been a bit distracted from blogging this week, by my efforts to get my new phone to work, so far unsuccessfully, with my PC and email.  I wish we didn't have to think so hard about these things.  Anyway the very appealing low tech lighting solution here is decorated in one of my favorite patterns UL, painted by Marjorie Batt in the late 1920s.

Poole Pottery Candle Holder

This eBay purchase is another departure for me, but I've been eyeing up candle holders like this for a while.  There's one for a single candle with a shell-like scroll shape, that I hoped to find first, but ended up with this double version, and I think there are other holders for 3 or more candles too.  The glaze is called "seagull" and the shape (no 977) was probably designed by John Adams and Harry Brown in the mid to late 1930's.

Early HH Pattern Chamber Stick

I just about forgot this one, but found it again today hiding in a box under the bed in the guest room.  Won on eBay earlier this year, it has a couple of nasty chips on the top rim (which is why it was in the box), but at the time I had to buy it, because the shape and pattern are both so gorgeous.  It's an early example and the grey glaze dates it to between 1922 and 1924.  It's shape number 261, LD pattern painted by Ethel Barrett.

Traditional Poole Candlestick 643/JF

I got this one at Newark Antiques Fair last autumn.  It's quite early I think.  The "delft" glaze on traditional Poole was developed throughout the 1920's and there were several stages in its evolution.  This glaze looks like one of those stages.  The pattern with it's slightly blobby spots looks early too, as does the overall shape which is a bit more rustic than the usual Poole candlesticks.  It has a factory mark that was used from 1922 and was painted by Ethel Barrett who worked at the pottery from 1922 to 1927.

Atlantis

Atlantis dates from about 1969 and came from the Poole Craft Section headed up at that time by Guy Sydenham. The range has a similar look to Guy's solo work at the time.

This bowl is made from high fired red earthenware, but other Atlantis pieces have a grey stoneware body. It was thrown and carved by Catherine Connett sometime between 1973 and 1976, and is stamped with her 2 interlocking back-to-back Cs (like the Channel logo). The throwers were encouraged to mark their work at Poole for the first time by Guy Sydenham, in recognition of their individual artistic contribution.

Atlantis ware isn't all that common: I think when it was made it was quite expensive and production relatively time consuming and small scale. This is the first bit of Atlantis that I've found for my collection. Usually it's too expensive for me, but this one isn't perhaps the most exciting shape and as such it was a bit of an eBay bargain.