The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present

"Contempt and Contemporary" Attitudes in the Staffordshire Ceramics Industry during the1950sAuthor(s): Lesley JacksonSource: The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, No. 15, APPLIED ARTSIN THE POST-WAR YEARS (1991), pp. 20-28Published by: The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the PresentStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41809184 .

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"Contempt and

Contemporary"1 Attitudes

in the Staffordshire

Ceramics Industry during the 1950s

by Lesley Jackson

Throughout the 1950s there was a lively debate within the Staffordshire-based ceramics industry about the merits and pitfalls of "contemporary" design. During the course of the decade the tide of opinion changed from unified hostility to widespread acceptance, until in 1959, David Queensberry, the newly appointed Professor of Ceramics at the Royal College of Art, reflected in an address to the British Pottery Managers' Association: "the fact that we require modern designs today is much more accepted than it was when I came to work in the Potteries nine years ago." In a résumé of this lecture in the Pottery Gazette and Glass Trade Review , the reason for this change was attributed to the desire on the part of the consumer for something fresh and modern in the aftermath of the prolonged period of austerity and stagnation which followed the war. Initially when trade restrictions were lifted, "there was such a boom that almost anything made would sell, and the designs that were inherited from the "thirties" were perfectly adequate. That situation changed, and manu- facturers suddenly discovered that a lot of their designs were not popular; agents and salesmen wanted some- thing different in both modern and traditional patterns."2

The Second World War caused enormous disruption within the ceramics industry. Shortage of labour and of raw materials, combined with stringent Government directives on output, meant that only the bare mini- mum of ceramics were produced. After the War strict Board of Trade regulations were enforced for a further seven years. As in other branches of the applied arts, such as textiles, furniture and fashion, "Utility" restric- tions governed the type of ceramics which could be manufactured for the home market: in general, only whitewares were available; surface decoration was outlawed and all tableware was required to be functio- nal, if not multi-purpose in use. In spite of the fact that the customer had so little choice in the shops that it seemed pointless for firms to continue publicising their wares, some manufacturers continued to place advert- isements in the Pottery Gazette simply to remind retailers that they were still in business. One firm who did bother to market their "Utility" range was Spode: their advertisements from 1951, for example, extol the virtues of a non-drip teapot with a self-locking lid and a built-in strainer.

Production for export, although free from these restrictions, was subject to regulations of its own. In order to stimulate national -economic recovery, the manufacture of a high percentage of decorated wares for export was not only encouraged by the Board of Trade, but was actually made obligatory. All the

decorated wares advertised in the Pottery Gazette right up until 1952, therefore, were available solely to foreign markets. In addition, the magazine ran a regular feature during these years called "Designed for Export", showing the type of designs which were popular abroad. On the whole these designs either echoed the shapes and patterns popular before the War, or were of an overtly traditional nature. They were re-workings of existing designs or existing design formulae, and their reactionary style was reflected in their titles, such as "Williamsburg Restoration" by Wedgwood, "Buttercup" by Wiltshaw and Robinson, and "Hedgerow" by Wade, Heath and Co, all featured in April 1950. Although the majority of Staffordshire manufacturers were inherently conservative in matters of design, this long period of enforced production for export intensified these propensities, and was one of the main reasons for Britain's retarded development at the start of the 1950s.

After several years these Government-imposed con- trols began to rankle with manufacturers who peti- tioned to have the rules relaxed. Their complaints made little impact, however, and the only concessions granted before 1952 were the supply of a trickle of export rejects for the home market (invariably dam- aged or defective pieces); the use of single coloured glazes on stoneware and the dispensation allowing the use of coloured slip banded decoration on earthenware (of relevance primarily to studio potters outside the Staffordshire area, who were attempting to fill the gap in the market for domestic tableware by engaging in small-scale production).3. In January 1951 the editors of the Pottery Gazette complained: "Unfortunately, whiteware is still the rule despite a steady rise in production and a corresponding increase in exports . . . There is a growing realisation that few people under the age of 28 . . . will have had an opportunity during their lives to appreciate the beauty of good pottery . . . The British public are sick and tired of being told to be satisfied with the miserable quantity of export rejects that the Board of Trade permits to the home market like crumbs falling from a rich man's table."

It was not until the middle of the following year that the industry began to see light at the end of the tunnel. In June 1952 the Pottery Gazette announced that because of a decline in exports the Board of Trade had decreed that some decorated pottery could now be sold on the home market. Three months later it was finally announced that pottery controls were at an end; restrictions and quotas were abolished, and the only

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restrictive measure which still remained in force was the continued imposition of a 100 per cent Purchase Tax on ornamental pottery.

For these reasons it is understandable why the industry should have had such a slow start after the War, and why it should have fallen so far behind its foreign competitors, such as the United States and Sweden, whose production had been less badly affected by the impact of the War. The "Britain Can Make It" exhibition of 1946 highlighted the fact that the industry had virtually nothing new to offer that had not already been seen before the War. Five years later, at the Festival of Britain in 1951, little progress had been made, and the only real design initiative came from outside the industry, prompted by the stimulus of the multi-media Festival Pattern Group.

The Festival Pattern Group was established to create abstract surface patterns based on crystal structures suitable for application to a wide variety of applied arts - including glass, wallpapers, textiles, plastics and metalwork - for decorative use on the South Bank site. At the invitation of the newly formed Council of Industrial Design (CoID), a number of Staffordshire manufacturers participated in the scheme. The patterns were based on crystallography diagrams prepared by a Cambridge scientist, Dr Helen Megaw, and the table- ware was intended for use and display in the Regatta Restaurant. Initially a series of experimental litho- graphic transfers was prepared by Peter Wall, a student at the Royal College of Art. Afterwards printed patterns were developed by three firms: R.H. and S.L. Plant, E. Brain and Co, and Wedgwood. Although a worthy enterprise, the Festival Pattern Group had little immediate impact on the style or standards of design in the ceramics industry, and although the patterns were originally developed with a view to production for export to the USA and Canada, the lack of exposure given to this scheme after the opening of the Festival indicates that this did not, in fact occur. The only identifiable spin-off from this project came to fruition four years later when, in 1955, Jessie Tait, the resident pattern designer at Midwinter, created an abstract pattern called "Festival", the shapes and structures of which recall the forms of crystal structures.4

It was the Festival of Britain, and the criteria for selection imposed on manufacturers by the CoID, that opened up the post-war debate about the value of traditional versus modern design. In April 1950 the Pottery Gazette complained that: "The Council of Industrial Design has seen fit to debar from the Festival any design that even so much as hints at tradition. As prosecutor, judge and jury, it must take full responsi- bility for this serious lack of common sense. In so far as the pottery and glass industries are concerned, at least, the quest for modernism for its own sake is doing (and will do) irreparable harm to our prestige over- seas." In this editorial there was also strongly implied, although never overtly stated, criticism of the Festival Pattern Group scheme: "The Council appears mis- guidedly to view art as a science. Pottery designers are not scientists, and any attempt to induce them to experiment or conduct research in an endeavour to discover new principles, formulae and theories in the realm of art, can only result in the chaotic mysticism of

the Picasso school. As far as we are aware, no pottery art director or designer is likely to be influenced by this so-called "modernism".

The rather confused, and in this context somewhat irrelevant, reference to Picasso is highly significant. Three years previously Picasso had settled at the pottery-making centre of Vallauris in the south of France. Without any previous experience of pottery, he suddenly adopted ceramics as his chosen medium of expression. Established studio potters such as Bernard Leach, and the majority of Staffordshire ceramic manufacturers, were affronted by Picasso's audacity in co-opting their medium for his latest avant-garde artistic experiments. In the editorials of the Pottery Gazette during the early 1950s the name of Picasso was synonymous with subversion. What should have been a cultural triumph for the Potteries - an exhibition of Picasso's work held at the Hanley Art Gallery in September 1950 - was reported by the Pottery Gazette with guarded hostility: "A section of the exhibition was devoted to the artist's work on pottery, there being in particular a number of plates, jugs and vases. They were typical of the man."5 These two unenthusiastic sentences represent the sum total of the notice awarded to the ceramic content of the exhibition, and the policy of the magazine appears to have been to avoid drawing attention to Picasso's work at all in case this increased the influence it might exert on the industry and its designers.

Only towards the end of the decade were Picasso's ceramics assessed more objectively, as a valid and independent contribution to the fine arts, rather than as a threat to either craft or industry. As David Queensberry pointed out in 1957 on a CoID Pottery Course: "Picasso might be successful in making articles vaguely resembling a teapot or a plate that were deplorable to use. He could do so because he had the power as an artist to turn them into objects which were of value to look at. Most pottery manufacturers did not

Fig. 1. Group of "CM" Figures, designed by Çolin Mel- bourne for Beswick, 1956. (coll. Alan Carter)

have people of Picasso's power on their design staff, and it was much safer for them to make their ware as useful as they could afterwards, and not the other way about."6

Whilst a number of young British studio potters were

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noticeably inspired by Picasso's ceramics during the early 1950s - namely Richard Parkinson, William Newland, James Tower, Nicholas Vergette and Mar- garet Hine - the only initiative within the Stafford- shire ceramics industry which bore any direct pattern relation to Picasso was the work of Colin Melbourne in the Experimental Studio at Wade, Heath and Co's Manchester Pottery. Established in 1950 by Colonel George Wade, Chairman of the Wade Group of Potteries, the Studio was described in the Pottery Gazette in March 1952 as "a small but excellently equipped studio where there are created, under ideal conditions, individual pieces of ornamental pottery, unique and advanced in conception. The project is "hush-hush". Unhindered by market requirements, tradition, and economic considerations, the studio seeks to develop the unexplored potentialities of pottery. The intention is primarily to pot for personal pleasure, and secondly to raise standards of apprecia- tion ... It is both visionary and exploratory, and therefore exciting to the artist." In this feature the 24 year old Melbourne cited the influence of both Georges Rouault and Picas- so on his work, describing the latter as a "great and very capable artist", and stressing the significance to the pottery industry of Picas- so's decision to express him- self through ceramics. Mel- bourne was one of the few people within the industry to appreciate fully the stimulus to design that Picasso's con- tribution to ceramics could bring: "It may not always be good pottery from a techni- cal standpoint, but it is al- ways vitally creative."

It was Colonel Wade's desire to see his initiative at the Wade Experimental Stu- J • _ .1 . i il ^i n * r aio aaoptea oy omer stai- fordshire manufacturers, but, predictably, this was not to be. Instead of being being "hush-hush" about the whole enterprise, had Wade promoted this scheme along the lines of the internationally renowned artists' studios at the Arabia ceramics factory in Finland, the company might have derived more benefit from it. The industry-linked studio system, so effective in Scandinavia, did not catch on in Britain, however. The only other comparable development was the Clayburn Pottery, established in 1953 by William Lunt, a director at Midwinter, produc- ing hand-thrown and hand-decorated vases, lampbases and cruets in the "contemporary" style. This commer- cial studio pottery was independent from, although closely allied to, the parent firm, Midwinter, and its output complemented the progressive "Stylecraft" tablewares being produced at this date.7

Although none of Melbourne's work from the Wade Studio ever went into production (nor was, indeed,

ever intended for this purpose), the creative freedom which Melbourne enjoyed at Wade bore fruit in his freelance work for several other manufacturers during the 1950s, including Beswick and Midwinter, and in his design partnership with David Queensberry. At Wade Melbourne had specialised in sculptural figurative modelling, his masterpiece being the lifesize torso of "Ivy", produced for the Festival of Britain exhibition held in the King's Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1951. Displayed anonymously, the sculpture caused great controversy and offence, and was generally considered to be "an affront to the dignity and the best interests of good potting" at the time, but "Ivy" was actually intended as a critique of the "apathetic, half-hearted, artificial fervour which . . . characterised the Festival."8

Melbourne's figurative modelling for commercial production was on a more domestic scale. Two series of figures appeared on the market in 1956: the first for Midwinter, advertised in January 1956 as "Contempor- ary Stylecraft models"; the second for Beswick - the "CM" range (fig. 1) - featured in an article in the

Fig. 2. Plate, "Fiesta" pattern on "Stylecraft" shape, designed by Jessie Tait for Midwinter, 1954. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

Pottery Gazette in Decem- ber 1956, and advertised the following month. The Midwinter pieces included cats in various positions, a bull, a seal, and a polar bear. They were decorated in single colour matt glazes. Simple in form and decora- tion, Melbourne recalls that this range took only a matter of weeks to design.9. The Beswick pieces were not dissimilar, but they were more stylized and exaggerated in shape, and they were developed over a period of twelve months. Slip-cast, they were hand-decorated with a range of matt and bright glazes with surface decora- tion developed oy Kes- wick's Art Director, Jim Hay ward. Whereas the Midwinter figures were de-

signed to complement the company's now well- established "Stylecraft" and "Fashion" tableware, for Beswick the adoption of the "contemporary" style marked a radical new departure from their hitherto conservative design policy, for at this date Beswick were indelibly associated then - as now - with the manufacture of realistically modelled animal and bird studies, such as horses, cattle and dogs. As the Pottery Gazette remarked in its article on these "Contemporary Figures": "It is true to say that the new pieces - the range consists of twenty-six pieces, and is stated to be the first of a series - represents also a tremendous break with the Beswick tradition, and the trade will at first find it difficult to believe that these are truly Beswick productions. It is an attempt to produce on a commercial basis what has hitherto been the province of the studio potter."

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As in the Experimental Studio at Wade, Melbourne was evidently allowed a high degree of creative freedom in the development of these figures, and they reflect some of the same artistic tendencies as seen in his earlier work. In answer to the question, "Why do modern artists tend to distort their creations?" in the Pottery Gazette article on the Wade Studio in 1952, Melbourne replied: "It all depends on what is meant by distortion. For example, Gothic sculptors and painters elongated their figures in order to give a more vital expression. It is just the same with modern artists. I do agree, however, that some of us are inclined to over-or unnecessary (sic) distortion. We live in a rather distorted century, and I think this has a real bearing on the issue." His reply - setting this issue in a wider context - is equally pertinent to his later work for Beswick.

Although something of an isolated figure in the Staffordshire industry during the 1950s, Melbourne found a like-minded enthusiast for modern design in David Queensberry, and together they formed a partnership called Drumlanrig and Melbourne spe- cialising in "contemporary" design. An example of their work which survives in the collection of Stoke-on- Trent City Museum and Art Gallery - a plate decorated with a sculptural abstract linear motif - shows how progressive their thinking was. Apart from the printed patterns which were used to decorate the "Queensberry" range of bone china designed by David Queensberry for Crown Staffordshire in 1957, only one other commercial manufacturer - Wiltshaw and Robinson, makers of Carlton ware - appear to have adopted patterns in this style during the 1950s. Carlton- ware used a printed sculptural image recalling the work of Naum Gabo to decorate wares, such as an asymmet- rical hors d'oeuvres dish, at the end of the decade.

Public response to these and other "contemporary" designs was monitored in a Pattern Popularity Poll held in a department store in Bournemouth in 1957. 10 Customers were shown eight different printed patterns, some representational, some abstract, all used to decorate the same "Queensberry" tableware shape. Most popular was "Deauville", a floral spray design, which won 31 per cent of the vote; least popular was the surreal sub-Fornasetti "Musicalia", a pattern of historical musical instruments, which was beyond the comprehension of more than three per cent of Bourne- mouth shoppers. In the middle were "Harmonograph", an optical three-dimensional linear pattern; "Black Texture", an "irregular open-weave textile effect", similar to many Formica patterns of the period; and David Queensberry's own pattern, "Lines"; a boldly abstract design described as "off-parallel, partly in- tersecting, lines carried out in groups of black and orange". Together these accounted for 27 per cent of the vote. This poll indicates that, while "contempor- ary" abstract design now accounted for a significant sector of the market, and could no longer afford to be ignored by manufacturers, it was still a minority taste. David Queensberry summed up the situation at this date in a lecture to a group of retailers on a CoID course in 1957, summarised in the Pottery Gazette in November of that year: "we live in 1957, and many people have preferences for things with a 1957 look -

cars, clothes, cookers, television sets, etc. Inevitably some wanted pottery to match. The industry followed very slowly at first, but recently it had made great strides, and now there was much well-designed Engish pottery on the market". In 1959 the young David Queensberry, still under 30 years of age, was appointed Professor of Ceramics at the Royal College of Art, a fact which signified the respect he had earned during the course of his short career, and the seriousness with which his ideas about modern design were now being taken by the industry.

Although Queensberry did not cement his alliance with the firm of W. R. Midwinter until the early 1960s, Midwinter emerged as design leader during the early 1950s and was undoubtedly the most progressive and innovative manufacturer operating in Staffordshire for the next three decades. The factory was completély modernised during the early years after the War, and was, therefore, well-equipped to expand production to supply the demands of the post-war boom.11 Before the War, however, although commercially successful, the company had concentrated on traditional rather than modern design. After the War the young Roy Midwin- ter, bursting with new ideas, transformed the factory's entire production, radically altered the company's image, and heightened its public profile.

A tendency towards insularity with the Staffordshire industry had resulted in an overwhelming ignorance of the revolutions in shape design which had been taking place in Sweden and the USA during the 1940s. Inspired by the new developments he witnessed at first hand during a sales trip to the USA in August 1952 - the relaxed organic shapes of Russel Wright's "Amer- ican Modern" tableware for Steubenville and his "Casual China" for Iroquois, for example, and the elegant forms of Eva Zeisel's "Museum" service for Castleton China and her fluid Tomorrow's Classic" shapes for Hall China - Roy Midwinter quickly launched his "Stylecraft" range in 1953, and later his "Fashion" tableware in 1955. The former miraculously progressed from design to production within the space of six short months. Even the Pottery Gazette , reaction- ary as it was, was quick to realise that Midwinter had made a major breakthrough with the introduction of what it called "American-style coupe ware" on to the British market. In February 1953 the editors com- mented: "Unless we are very much mistaken, this departure from tradition is going to prove very success- ful, not so much because of the many practical advantages involved, as for the fact that here is something new, something fashionable". This en- couraging editorial was then followed by "a five-page feature entitled "Welcome to British Coupe Ware", in which details of the forty different 'Stylecraft" (fig. 2) shapes were described and illustrated. The manufactur- er, it was explained, was aiming for something "more in keeping with a similar trend to be seen in modern schemes of interior decoration, furniture, motor cars, architecture, and so on."

The development of "Stylecraft" has now become something of a legend. A feature of the range - and indeed of Midwinter's output throughout the 1950s - which has achieved less recognition, but which was highlighted from the outset as being as important as the

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Fig. 3. Tea Service, "Zambesi" pattern on "Fashion" shape, designed by Jessie Tait for Midwinter, c. 1957. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

shape, was the crucial role played by Midwinter's pattern designer, Jessie Tait. Trained at Burslem School of Art under Gordon Forsyth and Reginald Haggar, Jessie Tait joined Midwinter shortly after the war. She was described by the Pottery Gazette as a "quiet" and "unassuming", but in spite of her modesty she was hailed as early as 1953 as "one of the industry's most promising young artists, of whom more will be heard in the future". . Even before the development of "Stylecraft" she was being encouraged by Roy Midwinter to design increasingly modern patterns - an advertisement in July 1952, for example, illustrates

Fig. 5. Side Plate, "Chequers" pattern on "Fashion" shape, designed by Terence Conran for Midwinter, 1957. Note the use of combined printed outline and sponged colouring. This design was originally pro- duced as a textile design by David Whitehead in 1951. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

"Contemporary Designs by Jessie Tait" - but she was obviously inspired by the modernity of the new sha- pes to design patterns which were increasingly bold and abstract. There was a close correspondence between her work and that of "contemporary" textile designers such as Lucienne Day, and Tait has spoken of seeking inspiration for her designs by visiting Lon- don department stores, such as Heal's for whom Day created many fabrics during the 1950s.

Many of the early de- signs, such as "Homeweave",

"Fiesta" and "Primavera", were hand painted under glaze which, as the advertisements stressed, made them acid resistant, unlike patterns from the 1930s - such as those by Clarice Cliff - which were painted in enamels over glaze and were thus liable to chipping. The only over-glaze colour used by Midwinter was red, which was exploited to stunning effect in the two

Fig. 4. Bowl, "Cuban Fantasy" pattern on "Fashion" shape, designed by Jessie Tait for Midwinter, 1957. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

patterns, "Red Domino" and "Zambesi" (fig. 3). Hand painting obviously required considerable skill and accuracy, and on the design called "Festival" from 1955 the problem was eased by the adoption of the pounce technique using perforated lead foil to mark the outlines in charcoal for subsequent freehand painting. Later Jessie Tait designed patterns which involved a combination of printing and either painting or spongeing, a technique used successfully on designs such as "Cuban Fantasy" (fig. 4) and "Savana". Jessie Tait also played a vital role in adapting for production designs commissioned by Roy Midwinter from outside artists and designers, such as "Cannes" and "Riviera" by Sir Hugh Casson, and "Chequers" (fig. 5), "Nature Study", "Plantlife" and "Saladware" by the young Terence Conran.

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Roy Midwinter's second range, "Fashion" was laun- ched at the Blackpool Gift Fair in January 1955, and was featured in an article in the Pottery Gazette in June 1955 called "Keeping ahead with Contemporary De- sign". With their high looped handles and undulat- ing rims the pieces in the new "Fashion" service were altogether more fluid, and it was with this range - quar- tic like its predecessor - that Midwinter finally dis- pensed with flat rims alto- gether and fully embraced the American coupe formu- la. Although the high pro- jecting rims on the tea and coffee pots were strongly indebted to similar features on Eva Zeisel's "Tommor-

Fig. 6. Bowl, with zebra-striped pattern designed by Jim Hayward and shape designed by Albert Hallam for Beswick, 1954-63. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

row's Classic" service, there was no overt plagiarism. This is more than can be said for the reception which

greeted Midwinter's innovations in Britain, the shapes and patterns of which were soon being widely copied. Within a year of its introduction versions of Jessie Tait's popular "Homeweave" pattern were being pro- duced by Wade (pattern No. 6069, advertised in the Pottery Gazette March 1954), and Ridgway and Adder- ley (Pottery Gazette , June 1954). The startling black and white zebra-striped pattern, "Zambesi", was copied by Beswick on a range of extravagantly shaped asymmetrical bowls and vases, and by other less well known firms such as Lancaster and Sandland, and the Longton New Art Pottery, manufacturers of Kelsboro' Ware. The "Primavera" formula was adopted in Wood and Sons' "Hedgerow" pattern ( Pottery Gazette , Feb 1955) and in pattern 2A 1201 on their "Ringwood" ware ( Pottery Gazette , Feb 1956). The quartic shape of Midwinter's "Stylecraft" was emulated outside Staf- fordshire in T. G. Green & Co's "Patio Modern" shape (Pottery Gazette , Feb 1955); while elements of "Fashion" styling can clearly be seen in the "Barlas- ton" shape produced by Wedgwood (Pottery Gazette , May 1957). Plagiarism was rife, and it permeated from the top end of the market to the bottom in a desperate attempt by manufacturers to keep up with the fashion for 'contemporary", established and popularised by "Midwinter Modern".

Within the Staffordshire industry there were a number of manufacturers who, during the second half of the decade, once the "contemporary" style had become accepted, pursued independent initiatives. Beswick's range of organic wavy-edged, coiled and tripod bowls, and double-necked asymmetrical vases (fig. 6), designed by Albert Hallam between 1954 and 1957 (withdrawn in 1963) are some of the most remarkable shapes of the decade, for example. The plasticity of these shapes appears to derive from Scandinavian and Italian glass, such as the designs of Per Lütken at Holmegaard, Gunnar Nylund at

Strömbergshyttan, Paul Kedelv at Flygsfors, and Paolo Venini and Fulvio Bianconi at Venini. Wholesale importers, such as Danasco, Finmar, Wuidart, Elfver- son, imported goods from Scandinavia from 1952 onwards, while Italian ceramics and glass arrived later in the decade from about 1956, brought in by firms such as Peter Acatos, F. Bristol and Son, Ceramics and Glass Ltd and Ceramics and Crystal. Venini's "Hand- kerchief" vases were well-known and widely imitated by manufacturers of both ceramics and glass. By 1957 they were being copied in Staffordshire by firms such as Thomas Lawrence and Arthur Wood, who displayed their wares at the Blackpool Gift Fair in January of that year.

From 1956 onwards there was also a flood of cheap German ceramics on to the market, such as those manufactured by the Schramberger Majoliker Fabrik, imported by Healacraft, and Ü-Keramik, imported by the Holborn Tableware Company. The bright colours and wayward forms of Italian and German ceramics had a decided influence on the type of products made in Britain, such as Wood and Sons' "Piazza" ranges, advertised from 1956 onwards. The title of these ornamental wares directly reflects the Italian influence. In addition, an exhibition of Gio Ponti's ceramics was held at Liberty's in 1957, whilst a Piero Fornasetti exhibition at the Tea Centre in 1958 attracted consider- able attention. Rosenthal - a German firm who had themselves been influenced by the freeform shapes of Italian ceramics during the first half of the decade - maintained a high profile in Britain throughout the 1950s. Special displays were mounted in major depart- ment stores, such as Harrods in London and Kendals in Manchester, and each new shape and pattern produced by the firm received guaranteed coverage in the pages of the Pottery Gazette.

Staffordshire firms who responded positively to the newly discovered freedom of form and pattern seen in British and Continental ceramics during the 1950s included S. Fielding and Co (Crown Devon), Wiltshaw

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Fig. 7. Set of bowls, "Oceania" pattern, S. Fielding and Co. (Crown Devon) c. 1957-59. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

and Robinson (Carltonware) and Wade. Crown Devon produced a range of asymmetrical organic shaped bowls decorated with designs such as "Oceania" (fig. 7), a hand-painted and printed pattern of crabs and lobsters; Carltonware evolved their well-known "Windswept" (fig. 8) tableware in 1958, the softened

ment". A feature in the Pottery Gazette in April of that year described the particular qualities which made it suitable for the modern style of decoration: "Bold and fairly heavy weights of colour, more especially for the earthenware section of the industry, appear to lend themselves readily to contemporary design, with its tendency to achieve simple colour combinations, to avoid naturalistic detail, and similar manifestations of the fine arts." These high quality ceramic transfers, many quite innovative in design terms, were widely

plastic shapes of which had a surreal melted Dali-esque quality; and Wade intro- duced, firstly, their two tone glazed "Harmony" bowls and vases and, later, their "Shooting Stars" and "Parasols" printed patterns in 1956.

Wade's tableware pat- terns from the middle of the decade highlight the importance of the newly developped technique of over glaze silk screen trans- fer printing, made widely available by the Burslem firm of Johnson Matthey (fig. 9). This process, first launched in 1949, had been considerably improved by 1954, when an influential exhibition was held at the firm's showrooms. By this date the technique had be- come strongly associated with "contemporary" de- sign, which the firm re- garded "as its most promis- ing direction of develop-

Fig. 8. Part of Coffee Service "Windswept" pattern, Wiltshaw and Robinson (Carltonware), 1958. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

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used in Staffordshire during the second half of the 1950s. It was this practice of buying in designs from outside printers which accounts for the occasional close resemblance between the patterns of different manu- facturers using the same transfers, such as the ubi- quitous "Bamboo" design.

Many larger manufacturers or groups of manufactur- ers, such as Ridgway Potteries (formed in 1955 from eight different factories), established their own design studios during the 1950s so that they could create their own shapes and patterns in-house. However, in an article called "Designers in Action - Ridgway Team Gets the Results" in the Pottery Gazette in May 1957, attention was drawn to the fact that manufacturers still varied considerably in the degree of emphasis they placed on design: "Some firms with tremendous outputs have correspondingly large design depart- ments. Other manufacturers with substantial outputs manage to cope with a smaller number of designers. Some firms, usually those of small-to-medium size, have only one or two full-time designers, or none at all, relying largely on access to freelance material, sugges- tions from experienced decorators at the bench, or "safe" ideas from a litho-printer. There appears to be no generally accepted rule in such matters, much depending on the class of business in which the particular manufacturer is engaged, its standing in the industry, and its outlook generally."

The article goes on to praise the efficient, flexible and dynamic design studio at Ridgway Potteries (the largest producer of domestic pottery in Britain at this date) headed by the talented young Royal College of Art graduate, Tom Arnold. Arnold, himself only 28, was in charge of an even younger team of eight staff designers. It was he who designed the "Metro" shape

on to which the 25 year old Enid Seeney's popular "Homemaker" design was printed from 1957 until the mid 1960s. Enid Seeney had first come to public notice when she won a Pottery Federation Scholarship in 1954 to attend the Royal College of Art. Already employed by Ridgway at this date, Seeney received "special advanced training" during her time at the RCA. It was no doubt while in London that she became so familiar with the CoID approved furniture and household accessories, some of which would have been on show at the newly opened Design Centre, which were later to provide the subject matter for her "Homemaker" pattern. Sold through Woolworths, this design was produced in large quantities, its self-consciously "con- temporary" imagery highlighting the dramatic change of attitude which had been brought about within the Staffordshire Industry during the course of the decade. In 1950 such a design would have inspired ridicule within the industry, but by 1957 it was perfectly acceptable not only to the country's leading commercial manufacturer, but to the majority of the population.

A less well-known, but equally fascinating, printed design by Burgess and Leigh (Burleigh) called "Fanta- sia" appeared in 1959 (fig. 10). Like "Homemaker" it was used to decorate a range of domestic tableware, but "Fantasia", representing a group of stylised bowls and vases with overtly "contemporary" shapes, was even more self-referential than the earlier Ridgway's pattern. It indicated how far the Staffordshire industry had developed during the course of the decade that, by 1959, it could not only accept modern design on its own terms, but even celebrate it with a pattern which adopted "contemporary" ceramic design as its own subject matter.14

Fig. 9. Two Tea Cups and Saucers, "Pagan" pattern on "Mode" shape, Wade, Heath and Co., c. 1957. An example of the technique of over glaze silkscreen printing developed by Johnson Matthey. (coll. Manchester City Art Galleries)

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Fig. 10. Plate, "Fantasia" pattern by Burgess and Leigh (Burleigh), 1959. (coll. Manchester City Art Gal- leries)

Notes: 1. The title of this article is taken from a heading in the

"Topics of the Moment" section of the Pottery Gazette , June 1959, p. 719.

2. Pottery Gazette, April 1960, pp. 507-8. 3. Such potters included leading figures such as Lucie Rie

and Hans Coper. 4. In a conversation with the author, Jessie lait did not

appear to recollect the relationship of this design to the Festival Pattern Group scheme. However, the visual correspondances between Midwinter's "Festival" pat- tern and the Festival Pattern Group plate produced by Wedgwood are more than coincidental.

5. Pottery Gazette , October 1950, p. 1522. 6. Pottery Gazette, November 1957, p. 1416. 7. Pottery Gazette. October 1953, pp. 1494-5. 8. Pottery Gazette, March 1952, p. 417. 9. Letter from Colin Melbourne to Alan Peat. 10. Pottery Gazette, December 1957, pp. 1544-5. 11. Pottery Gazette, March 1952, pp. 421-3. 12. Pottery Gazette, February 1953, p. 253. 13. Information from Jessie Tait in a conversation with the

author. Interestingly, Lucienne Day herself later became involved in ceramic pattern design following a commission from Rosenthal. Pottery Gazette, Novem- ber 1959, p. 1320.

14. Pottery Gazette, January 1959, p. 80.

Acknowledgements : I am indebted to Alan Peat for allowing me to read his unpublished research notes and manuscript on Midwinter, and for pointing out the importance of the Wade Experimen- tal Studio and the Clayburn Pottery. In September-October 1992 the first major Midwinter retrospective will be held at Manchester City Art Galleries, to coincide with the publica- tion of Alan Peat's monograph by Cameron Books. I am also indebted to Valerie Baynton at the Doulton Museum for information about Beswick, and to Jessie Tait for her recollections about Midwinter.

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