1920s MOORCROFT
WISTERIA VASE
This listing is for a superb example of
a slender Wisteria vase
c. 1928.
It was part of a collection put together over the
last two
decades - see last photo.
Most items have sold now except this
one and the other fab substantial
squat Wisteria vase- see our listings.
Mainly adding this photo for scale.
Blue W M initials on the base and the
post 1928 impressed shape number
which is either 393 or 593.
Seems to be a relatively rare shape
for this pattern - couldn't really find
any other examples in this shape.
This small but heavily potted vase
has the classic cobalt blue background
coloured glaze and yellow, pink and
purple Wisteria flowers
(always looked like plums to me).
William Moorcroft's company ethos was to
marry shapes, design and quality together
to create the best possible result and in my
humble opinion
this little vase hits the mark
better than
most.
It is just a lovely, tactile piece that is
surprisingly heavy for its size and
would have to be an addition of real
note to any serious collection.
If you
are interested in the history of Moorcroft
I have
added at the end of the listing a
condensed
version of an article that I wrote
back in
the early 2000s for the now defunct
Antiques
In New South Wales magazine
you got
free from most antique stores
in those days.
(Free?
Yes free! Those were the days).
I have
updated the information at the end about
Hugh
Edwards retiring which of course
hadn't
happened yet when I wrote this
article
originally.
Hope it's
of interest.
CONDITION
There are NO chips, cracks or restoration.
GUARANTEED.
I used to restore china many moons ago
and I can spot and feel restoration that
a lot of people would miss.
As the original clear glaze finish is bright
and shiny there is a lot of light reflections
in the
photos which may look like damage
or faults but are most definitely not!
There is the fairly standard all over fine
crazing to the pottery body that is not
uncommon in old Moorcroft.
Most noticeable in the lighter areas
i.e. the yellow fruit as shown in
close-up.
I found some minor
faults whilst
photographing it - never noticed
them before.
There’s the odd very short light scratch
scattered around the body
i.e. between the pairs of pink flowers
in photo 5.
As you can see very hard to see but if
you run your fingernail over it you can feel it.
On one of the purple flowers next to these
pink ones looks like it has a scratch too
that has taken out colour but this is
definitely UNDER GLAZE and
happened in the factory before
glazing.
Second minor fault is a small patch of
dullness that I feel sure is once again a
manufacturing flaw and left the factory
this way and
of little consequence.
Just want to make sure to describe
condition as accurately as humanly
possible so there are no ‘surprises’
but in reality the overall condition
is very
good.
DIMENSIONS
This lovely piece of Moorcroft measures:
5 3/16 inches high = 13.3 cm approx.
It weighs 304.5 grams
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William Moorcroft was
born in Riley Street, Burslem, England in 1872, the second son of four
surviving children born to Thomas Moorcroft (b 1849) and Theresa Edge also born
1849.
Theresa died in 1881
and a nanny, Betsy Jones, was brought in to help take care of the children.
Thomas married Betsy in 1884 then dying himself the following year, leaving his
four children to be raised by their new stepmother.
William's early
education took place locally around Burslem but he was later sent to the South
Kensington School of Art (presumably after showing some promise in this area),
and completed his artistic training in Paris.
William returned to
Burslem in 1897 and began work at James Macintyre and Co.
a well-established
Stoke-on-Trent pottery. Only a year later he was offered the job as the Art
Director of the Art Pottery Department at the age of just 26.
William was both a
potter and an artist and soon developed the style and techniques that would
become synonymous with his name.
One of these techniques
would later become the keystone to Moorcroft Pottery's designs. This was the use of slip trailing as part of the
surface decoration.
Slip trailing was already
a technique used at Macintyre's in the late 1800s as well
as by several other
companies - Doulton Lambeth for example.
But at this time the
slip was applied using a stoneware inkpot about 6.5cm high, with a small hole
drilled towards the base at the side. A quill was fixed into the hole allowing
the watered-down clay or 'slip' to be released from the inkpot by covering and
uncovering the neck of the inkpot with the thumb. The rate of flow largely
depended on the consistency of the clay mix. Using this method, the slip often
dried out as the decorator's hand slowly warmed the slip within the stoneware
inkpot. This and other associated problems restricted the design possibilities
to short, staccato lines or decorative motifs such as small dots, circles etc.
By studying the
problems inherent in the inkpot technique William, who wanted to produce
designs with long flowing lines akin with the fashionable Art Nouveau style of
the day, realised that only through constant pressure could the slip be forced
into a consistent line. The solution was to apply hand pressure to a bag
containing slip (much like icing a cake) with the line of slip formed by a
quill or similar device.
This new method of
application was to become known as 'Tube Lining' and helped to set Moorcroft's
pottery apart.
Also Macintyres used
a very refined clay in the production of its bread and butter lines of
electrical insulation products and wares for chemical and pharmaceutical use. William
found this clay so satisfactory in making his art pottery that he continued its
use even after leaving Macintyre's.
The high firing
nature of the body helped fuse the colours with the body in the initial firing,
this was called biscuit firing. After this more colours were applied by hand,
layered to achieve the required affect. This and the high firing temperature
with the translucent glaze produced the richness and brilliance of colour that
we associate with early Moorcroft pottery.
Tube Lining was first
used in William's Florian Ware range at Macintyre's. This first phase of
Florian ware dates from 1898 to about 1905 when numerous other designs
including Cornflower, Hazeldene and Claremont were registered.
He produced in 1910
the first version of Pomegranate, still one of the most collected designs today.
William signed each
piece with either a full signature or his initials to make his work entirely
his own.
He won medals and
commendations along the way for pottery including his first gold medal in 1904
at the St Louis Centennial Exhibition. This resulted in his supplying Tiffany
of New York and Shreve & Co of San Francisco. He was already supplying
Liberty & Co of London who had recognised his genius a few years
previously.
Although Macintyre's
always encouraged him, these honours were always for William as an individual
and not Macintyre's as a company, thus creating a situation where his success
was not actually helping his employer's status in the pottery world.
In 1913 the
inevitable split occurred. Macintyre's decided to close their art pottery
department and concentrate on their ever-increasing electrical insulation
market for which the clay that William used was actually designed. So with the
monetary backing of Liberty's, William opened his own pottery, Moorcroft
Limited at Cobridge.
It was not uncommon
then for large companies to finance designers in their own businesses if they
thought they had potential, and luckily for the world Liberty's
saw exactly what potential
there was to be had in William Moorcroft..
The building of his
new pottery coincided with new pottery regulations set out under the Factories
Act of 1913.
He also married in
early 1913. A lady by the name of Florence Lovibond who just happened to be by
profession an Inspector of Factories for the Home Office. Her input into his
new pottery was immeasurable of course as well as that of his architect. As a result William built a new factory that
was to establish the format for many future potteries.
William was eager to
establish a pottery where the marriage of shape and decoration was paramount
and where product quality was the highest possible. His designs captured the
vibrancy and vitality of nature, so typical of the Art Nouveau style that
influenced him entirely.
The 1920s were good
years for W. Moorcroft Limited, offering pieces in the newly developed 'flambé'
technique developed in 1919 by William himself in secret and sold through
Liberty of London. Walter, his eldest son and successor, later commented that
he 'never discovered how or from what source my father acquired the technique
of producing flambé. Predominately, flambé was a red glaze put over an already
established pattern, often Wisteria in the early 1920s. In 1928, Berries and
Leaves was specifically designed as a vehicle for flambé. Thankfully the secret
was passed on to Walter.
In 1928, Queen Mary
(wife of King George V), who had been collecting Moorcroft pottery for a number
of years, granted him the Royal Warrant.
'Potter to HM the
Queen' was stamped on the pottery until 1936. Following the death of George V,
the wording changed to 'Potter to HM Queen Mary' until 1949 when a paper label
was introduced with the same wording until 1953.
Earlier in 1913 he
had also developed a more utilitarian range exclusively for Liberty of London called
Powder Blue (also known later as Blue Porcelain), which would save Moorcroft
from financial ruin after the Wall Street crash of 1929 when Art Deco was The
fashion of the day and Art Nouveau was most definitely 'out'.
William wasn't a fan
of Art Deco himself and his ardent followers didn't want him to change his
designs so being aware of a growing interest in studio pottery he developed
what has become known as a 'natural' line of wares where the hand-thrown nature
of the forms was exaggerated and monochrome or mottled glazes were used. These
new designs added to an already wide and varied range of wares from which
customers could choose, and this depth of designs available throughout the
1930s helped Moorcroft survive as well as his Powder Blue line which was still
being produced. The simple, clean lines of Powder Blue were considered, even in
1937, to be as modern as anything on offer and so this range helped to offset
any decline in sales in the art pottery lines. Powder Blue was so successful it
was made for 50 years, until 1963.
With the full support
of Liberty, William was able to exhibit in numerous fairs and exhibitions ranging
from the annual British Industries Fair, which became an important showcase for
many years, to the prestigious international fairs which helped give rise to
his ever-growing overseas markets of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
North and South America and South Africa.
During the autumn of
1945 William was taken ill and his son Walter was allowed to return from the
army to look after the works. On 14 October, shortly after Walter's return,
William died leaving Walter to manage the pottery and continue to develop new
designs. Walter had already started designing in 1937 when he joined his
father's pottery after graduating from school. He was responsible for the Tiger
Lily and Orchid designs at this time, amongst others.
After William died,
Walter was not only responsible for all the new designs but the running of the
business as was his father before him, although he sensibly did delegate a few
aspects of production that William had always insisted on doing himself.
Walter continued in
the same tradition of his father until 1960 when an important event in the
pottery's history took place.
Liberty stopped
buying from Moorcroft.
The store's house
style had changed to reflect contemporary taste and Walter felt there was
little point in carrying on the relationship and bought liberty out of the
partnership.
He became the largest
shareholder, with his stepmother (his own mother dying in 1926) and his sister
Beatrice as fellow shareholders.
In the late 1960s, a
burgeoning interest in antiques saw a renewed interest in early Moorcroft which
consequently publicised the contemporary products. It resulted in a large
exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum followed by a selling exhibition
of old Moorcroft together with a catalogue, later to be greatly augmented and
filled with colour illustrations to form the first book on Moorcroft, all
arranged by Richard Dennis. The selling exhibition at the Fine Art Society in
New bond Street, London brought early Moorcroft designs to the attention of
many people for the first time, and started a collecting industry that is still
very strong today.
The 1970s saw
dramatic changes in the pottery industry. A factory basically had to be able to
diversify to survive, especially if it was competing with larger companies able
to offset the costs of exclusive and expensive lines with the sale of
mass-produced bread and butter lines. This fact and a global recession in the
late 1970's which hit two of Moorcroft's most important markets, the home
market and Canada, helped Walter and his family make the decision to put the
company on the market in 1984.
After several
shareholder changes, Moorcroft was finally bought by a solicitor, Hugh Edwards
and his business partner Richard Dennis.
Hugh Edwards was a passionate
collector of Moorcroft, collecting from when he was a young law student. He
built up a collection of 612 pieces spanning 88 years over time which sadly he
had to sell to enable him to buy the company.
During the next 5
years under Edwards and Dennis' stewardship Moorcroft trebled it's turnover
saving it from closing its doors.
Hugh Edwards finally
became the sole owner of Moorcroft Limited in 1992 and he and his team of
designers have continued to maintain William Moorcroft's design ethos i.e. the
importance of marrying both shape and decoration whilst maintaining the highest
possible quality.
Mr Edwards is still
Chair of Moorcroft but has handed over the reins to the next generation.
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