Mask vase

This vase was sold to me by a collector who had found it himself at the Cottees auction of September 2010.  It was designed it was designed by James Radley Young and dates from between 1915 and 1921.

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"

Around the Houses

I tried to buy this vase unsuccessfully, online from the Reeman and Danisie sale in Colchester, at the start of December last year.  It was for sale as part of a lot of two similarly shaped vases. The rustic "unfinished" surface makes for very certain identification.  Luckily, a second chance came within a couple of weeks when it turned up on eBay.  Quite a few pot seem to surface at auction houses only to reappear on eBay. There may be a profit to be made there, but I think in this case the original buyer may have been after one vase and not the other.  I would have been happy with either, and would have kept both, but this way at least the joy is shared.
This style of unglazed  pottery was developed by James Radley Young, through the war years, from 1914. It is signed on the base Carter Co Poole (mark used from 1908 until 1921), together with an inscribed No.9 and a painters mark M-C.

The markers mark

James Radley Young was making vases like this one, unglazed and decorated in "Egyptian" patterns, during the first world war. This vase, has an impressed Carter and Co Poole signature on the base, so it dates from some time prior to 1921.  It also has a rather nicely impressed thumb mark, visible on the photo about half way up on the right.  Picking the vase up now, the indentation fits the side of my thumb quite snugly, as it would have done the potter as he or she first lifted it from the wheel.

Carter & Co

I'm meant to be focusing on updates to the main website this week (and last week, and the week after) but when this arrived through the post this morning, I couldn't wait to post a photo here.  

This is now my oldest Poole pot by a good few years.  It's an example of unglazed ware developed by James Radley Young, through the war years, from 1914.  It is signed on the baser Carter Co Poole, a mark used from 1908 until 1921.