A follow-up on the Lancastrian Pottery story... I went to the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University (which has the most fabulous patterned glass doors!), where they have the John Chambers Ceramics Room containing a wonderful display of Lancastrian Pottery, including just one pot made by the Firth's at Kirkby Lonsdale and decorated by Lancastrian Pottery. The display covers all the years of their history, with tiles, vases, chargers, bowls, and interestingly as I wasn't aware of this, they also made ceramic buttons, brooches, and handles for umbrellas!
The company was originally the Pilkington's Tile and Pottery Company (founded in 1891) at Clifton Junction, just north of Manchester. They started making tiles two years later, by 1897 they were making their own pottery items, and by 1903 were making Lancastrian Pottery. In 1913 their name was changed to the Royal Lancastrian Pottery Company after they were granted the Royal Warrant by King George V.
Their earliest biscuit fired pots were bought in from a potter at Kirkby Lonsdale, called John Thomas Firth, whose workshop was on the banks of the River Lune, and Pilkington's specialised in creating the glazes to decorate them. Their glazes seem mainly to have been developed by William Burton, a chemist who had previously worked at Wedgewood. They included designs inspired by and based on ancient Chinese and Persian patterns. Other chemists who worked for Pilk's included Abraham Lomax (author of Royal Lancastrian Pottery 1900-1938, Its achievements and Its Makers), Arthur Chambers (son of John Chambers) who created the Cunian glazes, and Joseph Burton (brother of Willaim Burton.) Joseph was the chemist responsible for the development of Lapis Ware in 1928.
Designers employed by Pilkington's c. 1893 included John Chambers (after whom the collection display room is named) and Joseph Kwiatkowski. Pilkington's also commissioned designs from
Walter Crane,
CFA Voysey, and Lewis F Day (who was described by Pevsner as "the most distinguished industrial artist of his generation", but who, as yet, does not appear on Wikipedia!)
The company also had its own artists, those responsible for decorating the pottery, who included Annie Burton, Charles Cundall, Gordon M Forsyth, Jessie Jones, Richard Joyce, Edmund Kent, William Mycock, and Gladys Rodgers
Many of those involved with Pilk's in the early days were followers of the Arts and Crafts movement and William Morris, and they were heavily involved in the formation of the Northern Art Workers Guild in 1893, and William Burton, John Chambers, Walter Crane, Lewis F Day were all officers of the Guild, along with R. Anning Bell and John Cassidy; and Lancastrian Pottery was shown at the Guild's first exhibition in 1898 held at the Manchester City Art Gallery.
The Royal Lancastrian Pottery made pottery until 1938, then stopped for the duration of the war, restarting in 1948, but they stopped making pots altogether from 1953 and just made tiles from then on (as they still do) at the original Clifton Junction site and at Poole in Dorset.
After exploring the collection we went to talk to Mary Gavagan, the gallery director, who has taken my details and promised to put anyone interested in pottery in touch with the board. She will also let me know of any further info that turns up on the Firth Pottery, about which very little seems to be known still, and any additions to the Lancastrian Pottery collection.
If anyone is in the Lancaster area I can well-recommend making a detour to the University to check out the collection. The Gallery is open Mon- Fri, 11am-4pm, admission free, and they have a gallery shop and a changing exhibition area downstairs (which was featuring the Geometry of Fear when we were there.) More details from the gallery website here:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/peterscott/index.htm[Credits: Facts taken from the gallery's brochure on the John Chambers Ceramics Room.]
Topic: Lancastrian Pottery, England (Read 19017 times)