NCS Exhibition

When previously we lived in the Northwest of England we were active members of The Northern Ceramic Society (NCS for short).  This meant that as well as receiving the Society's excellent Newsletters and Journals we were able to share in the splendid lectures and activities organized at various northern venues, not to mention meeting and enjoying the company of fellow "potaholics".  As this is no longer possible, as a rule, we were delighted to be able to participate from afar in the recently assembled on-line exhibition of Members' Pots, organized to mark the 40th birthday of the Society.  Four or five of our pots found their way into the exhibition and it was very satisfying to see them alongside the interesting contributions of so many of our fellow members.  One of them was a tiny miniature polychrome teabowl from the Bow factory, dating from around 1760, whilst another was a beautifully painted two-handled Chinese chocolate cup with a trembleuse saucer, shown here.  Although our collection is essentially made up  of English porcelain we have a smaller number of oriental items, mainly as a cross-reference, since 18th century English potters were trying to emulate the Chinese...who closely guarded the production secrets!  We also have a few non-porcelain items, as these were rivals to porcelain wares in the English market of the time.

Bow miniature shown with £1 coin for scale.

New purchase!

There has been nothing new to report recently in our quest for pots until now, but today we have been successful at auction.  We have been able to add three pieces from some more unusual factories - Vauxhall, Chelsea and Longton Hall.  Each of the items has some damage, but as they are unusual we might not have been able to afford them had they been in perfect condition!

The Vauxhall teabowl is decorated with a chinoiserie design, in Imari colours, featuring birds and flora, whilst the Longton Hall and Chelsea coffee cups have polychrome floral patterns.  We shall have to be patient, though, because we shall collect them next time we travel north rather than entrusting them to the post.  Next up should be a sale at our local auction, so that problem will not arise there.

I recently met a local potter here in Cornwall and I am looking forward to learning more from him about the potting process.  It was interesting to hear him talk of the hazards of firing and the fine tuning of glazes and pigment needed to obtain a desired effect.  We are more used to seeing the wide variation in the output of the many eighteenth century factories, frantically competing with one another to emulate chinese porcelain and using a host of different ingredients and methods in the process.  He will probably be able to tell us a great deal about the manufacture of our pieces from their individual properties.  Fascinating stuff to potaholics like us!

Recent Buys

Now that my husband Noel and I are located in the far west of Cornwall we do not have so many places to shop for pots so we take advantage of any trips "up-country" to hunt for fresh treasures.  Visiting family in January we collected a recent auction purchase from Nantwich and found three other pieces in Newark...a celebrated centre of the antiques trade.  The auction piece was a "first" for us as a form - a Worcester potted meat tub. Dating from c.1775, it is painted with the Mansfield pattern and has an open-crescent mark as shown.

The most interesting piece from Newark was a tea cannister printed with the fence pattern - probably Worcester but we have not yet found it in any book.  Can anyone confirm this attribution?  There is some pooling of the bluish glaze to the base and an incised circle, as well as a small filled-crescent mark.  The date is probably around 1770.

We await another auction next week where we have our sights on some unusual, though damaged, items so we'll keep you posted!

Hello!

Hello, fellow Potaholics!  

Our daughter Anna has persuaded us that it is time to step into the twenty-first century with a Blog about our continuing obsession with early English porcelain.  The family has watched with dismay over the past dozen or so years as our house has filled up with more and more old pots.  We had always had lots of antiques of various sorts around the house - they said it was like living in a museum - but around the turn of the millennium our acquisitions became more focused, not to say fixated, upon the said pots...and the rest as they say is history!  We now have a "pot room" (or potting shed?!) in the house, but the contents still overflow into the dining room.

Watch this space!