Rob's Poole Pottery Blog

New find

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 15:27:00 +0000

I found this little pot (CN/370) on eBay earlier this year. It's just 7.5cm tall and was painted by Ruth Pavely. The grey ground dates it to sometime between 1922 and '24.

Keeping busy

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 10:07:00 +0000

I spent a rainy morning yesterday photographing all the pots I've collected over the last few years and never posted on this blog. Even without buying more, I've got a supply of photos to keep me busy posting for the next couple of years. This one is shape number 202 and painted in the PU pattern by Eileen Prangnell in the early 1930's and I won it at an auction with an online bid last summer.

The rumours of my death....

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 10:30:00 +0000

Whatever kept me away for so long!

The collecting has continued, though slowed to a more manageable pace, over the past 4 years. It's also continued to narrow in focus on the 1920s and early '30s Poole era, and some more of my 60's pots have gone the way of all pottery onto eBay. So there is quite a backlog of pots to post and now seemed a good time to start, if only to keep me from getting even more embroiled in TERF wars on Twitter.

This unglazed YM Pattern, shape 612 vase arrived cheep and dirty, but hairline crack sadly revealed by cleaning

New Address

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Tue, 29 May 2018 19:21:00 +0000

GDPR has struck again! For the last few years Rob's Poole Pottery Collection has been operating from this address www.robspoolepottery.co.uk funded by Google adverts. Unfortunately, I've had to remove the Google adverts, because I don't have the IT skills to add those pop-up disclaimers to the site that are needed to make the adverts GDPR compliant. So with the website no longer paying for itself, I've changed to a free of charge web host and a less catchy address https://robs-poole-pottery.000webhostapp.com/ Just in case you wanted to find it sometime.
The vase above is shape 208, NB pattern, painted by Rene Hayes sometime between 1926 and 1934.

TP pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 17:57:00 +0000

This is the second time I've owned a TP pattern vase, in this shape (399) and painted by Marjory Batt in the early 1930s. The first one was badly cracked this one is perfect and will stay in my collection for a while.

Handles

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 10:21:00 +0000

EE isn't the most collectable pattern and dating to about 1935 this vase isn't particularly early, but it's chunky proportions and the fantastic Art Deco handles sold for me. Shape number 973, on the base also is a sticker for the retailer, Alfred B Pearce and Co, 39 Ludgate Hill, London.

Moorish

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 13:52:00 +0000

I found this bowl in Saltaire last year. It has a short hairline crack on the rim, but I still bought it because the pattern is so unusual. Made from a buff coloured stoneware and covered with grey slip, the marks on the base are faint, but I think its marked KQ pattern, the shape is D349, and it has the CSA mark that dates it to 1921 or 1922.

Minature

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 15:39:00 +0000

This salt dish (shape 570) measures just just 4 cm tall. It's decorated with the same PB pattern that can be found covering 25 cm tall vases, but Dorothy James has painted it in miniature to great effect.

Demitasse

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:51:00 +0000

I've spent many hours, scrolling through eBay, trying to find full-sized, and usable, twin-tone tea cups. They are so hard to find, because they are so massively outnumbered by, and look just the same as, their coffee sized brothers. The impractical demitasses that survive so well, unused for years, in a thousand china cabinets.
But for once is was the diminutive size of this coffee cup, saucer and cake plate that caught my eye as a buy-it-now lot on eBay last year. The 5 cm tall cup (shape number 664) and the saucer (665) were painted by Ruth Pavely in the EE pattern which does look at it's absolute best on this scale. And though it's size and fine crazing make it impractical for use, it is ideal for display in my own china cabinet.
The soft focus on the photo isn't deliberate, but does perhaps quite suit this romantic and rather useless little cup

So long FY

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 10:43:00 +0000

This FY pattern, shape 352 vase painted by Gertie Warren in the middle 1920's, has been an all too brief visitor to my collection. I've owned it for about a year or so, and had it on a list of pots to blog about, but sold it on eBay last week.

Small blue thing

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:55:00 +0000

This Chinese Blue glazed vase measures just 7cm tall. It was designed by John Adams and dates from the early 1920's.

Strike fund

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 14:49:00 +0000

This week saw the start for the University and College Union 14-day strike. So my partner and me are both out on strike. Suddenly having time our hands is giving us a little taste of what retirement may be like As is the falling income that, in retirement for real, will fall even further if Universities UK get their way.
Anyway, on a positive note there are a few advantages to employers cheating on deals. For a start, it does give you a rarely felt sense of being the master of your own destiny and not a wage slave. It's also given me time for walks in the late winter sunshine and time to post on this blog again. And it's given me reason to list a few pots for sale n eBay, to contribute to my own personal strike fund. I think I have enough pots to hold out for years that way.
The pot above, I'll not be listing (unless the strike goes on for months), is an early Carter and Co stoneware vase.

Drinking partner

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 19:36:00 +0000

Two things, I cant get enough of, drink and furry beasts, combined here in a single object. The bear came from eBay last month. The glasses and decanter I found in the Sheffield Antiques Centre today.

Circus Tent

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 17:14:00 +0000

WL is often refereed to as the circus tent pattern. An inverted version of the pattern forms the top inch or so of the larger XF pattern seen in the previous post. The shape number for this jug is unclear but may be 678.

XF

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 13:54:00 +0000

XF must be the king for geometric patterns. I've wanted a vase in this pattern for years, but until now have always been outbid. So it must be quite a popular pattern, which make sense given that you get so much more decoration for your money. This example was painted by Vera Bridle who worked at Poole between 1923 and '33, and I think it suits the shape (no 418) really well.

Lilly Pedley

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 09:36:00 +0000

Same shape and same painter as the last post and this vase came to me from the same collector too. This time its painted in OS pattern and glazed in the traditional Poole style

One extreme to another

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 15:14:00 +0000

A fraction of the size of the vase in the last post, at just 8 cm tall, this shape number 583 vase was painted, in the RU pattern, by Lilly Pedley, some time between 1925 and 1932.

Nitromors magic

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 08:50:00 +0000

This huge (34cm tall) glazed "Etruscan" vase arrived from Ebay last month. It was listed with what looked like white scuff marks to the surface, and this made sense as these pots are quite susceptible to surface damage. However when it arrived this scuffing turned out to be white paint - it looked like someone had brushed against it when painting nearby.
Old pots often collect small specks of paint, presumably from being left in situ while ceilings are being rollered. Paint doesn't stick very well to a glazed surface and usually specks of paint will wash off easily with warm water. The paint on this pot was a different matter however. The rough unglazed surface made a perfect canvas and the paint was stuck. Luckily I remembered reading in a pot conservation guide that nitromors is used by conservators to remove old glue from repairs. It seemed quite drastic at the time, but an old can of nitromors and several cotton wool buds later and the vase looks to be in factory-fresh condition. It turns out that nitromors will burn skin, completely melt paint, but magically leaves pottery untouched.
The pattern is AB and it was painted by Ruth Pavely in the early 1930's. The V&A have a similar vase.

Studland

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 30 Sep 2017 13:57:00 +0000

This Studland pattern coffee pot came together with a few cups and saucers and a sugar bowl. I don't have room to display those other pieces, but the coffee pot looks good standing among other decorative, less functional ware. Studland tableware was designed by Harold Stabler in 1930 and the shapes were clearly influenced by his earlier work as a silversmith. The apple green glaze was created by John Adams.

Garden City

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 18:44:00 +0000

This bowl was lot 227 in the same Hansons' 27th June 2016 sale in which the pot in the previous post was listed. I did really well that day!
It was cataloged as having a floral skyscraper design. but I've always seen this LP pattern as a much more straight forward roses and trellis design with Art Deco chinoiserie styling, that sits comfortably alongside other rose and trellis patterns, PU and PI. So to prove me right, I googled "early skyscrapers", thinking that they would all be pointy and Chrysler-like, but in fact there are quite a few boxy ones from the 1930's. So maybe floral skyscraper isn't so far-fetched.

Cogwheels

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 23 Sep 2017 11:19:00 +0000

I like this vase for the slightly cogwheel styling of the flowers. The overlapping and concentric circles on this and other Poole patterns remind me also of the Sonia and Robert Delaunay paintings of the teens and twenties of the 20th century. So this vase was definitively on-trend when it was made in the late 1920's or early 1930's. It's 18 cm tall, shape number 575 (I think), pattern DX, painted by Ruth Pavely and it was lot 151 in the 27th June 2016 Hansons' Decorative Arts sale.

Wobbly jug

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 11:03:00 +0000

I love this little jug. The thick tin glaze, on a pot so small, gives it a really wobbly look. It's made from buff coloured stoneware, measures a little over 7 cm tall, and is marked with the first CSA factory mark, shape number T324, a pattern mark that I think is /A and a painters mark that I cant decipher.

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 09:38:00 +0000

This pot was sold at the Warren and Wignall auction on 8th February 2017. It caught my eye because I hadn't seen this glaze before, and now it's mine, it still remains something of a mystery, at least to me.
It's marked as shape number 291, has the CSA Ltd stamp (so dates from 1925 to '34) and has a painted number 1, that must refer to the glaze. It has a red body, that I think is more highly fired than the usual earthernware body and has a thick glaze. Both the body and glaze have been ground down on the base as you find on the chinese blue vases.
If anyone has any more insights I would be glad to hear from you.

Mask vase

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 15:39:00 +0000

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.

Double D

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Barnsley) — Sun, 13 Aug 2017 17:53:00 +0000

Here's another shape 293, painted in DD pattern by Phyllis Way. DD is one of my favorite geometric border patterns. To my knowledge it's also the only one with red glaze (referred to as crimson in the pattern books).