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Designer
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Reg Sutcliffe
|
|
Maker
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Creigiau
Pottery
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|
Marks
|
Stamped
“Creigiau Wales” in blue ink to underside of bowl and plate
|
|
Material
|
Stoneware
|
|
Description
|
Hand-made glazed and incised stoneware bowl and
saucer with grey glaze to entire surface; lightly applied brown overglaze on
exterior. Wedge handle attached to
upper third of bowl, angled upward with end excised with lines. Glazed dimpled foot ring.
|
|
Condition
|
Very
good. One bowl cracked through
|
|
Number
|
No number
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|
Production
Date
|
Late 1970s
|
|
Width at rim
|
112mm
|
|
Width at Base
|
63mm
|
|
Depth
|
60mm
|
|
Length (with
handle)
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167mm
|
|
Weight
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235gm
|
|
Volume
|
375ml
|
|
Acquisition
|
Purchase
E-Bay
18 August
2014.
|
|
Rameking
Reference Number
|
CRE 001-016
|
Reginald George Southcliffe was an
accountant who was born in June 1912 in Newport, Monmouthshire in Wales,
UK. In his early years, his interest in
chemistry led to an interest in glazing ceramics. He began experimenting with glazes on pottery that he made at his
home. This led to him becoming a
full-time potter. With an accountants
fastidiousness, he looked long and hard for the right location for his pottery. In 1947, he found it in the Creigiau region
on Efail Esaf Road and bought land at the former Hendresguthan Fach Farm. The area had been recorded as “potters land”
as early as 1420. It is just past the
“Ceasars Arms” hotel, once the largest employer in the area.
Creigiau is a commuter area of around
1000 houses and 2,500 people to the north-west of Cardiff, the capital of
Wales. Creigiau’s claim to fame was its
quarry. The dolomite pit opened in the
1870s to supply stone to build Cardiff docks.
Later, the limestone and magnesium dolomite was used in the steel making
process.
Reg and his wife Jean began the
Southcliffe Ceramic Company at Creigiau.
(The next year the name was changed to “Creigiau Pottery.” They experienced problems early on with cuts
to electricity, lack of coal and poor quality coal. A purchase tax was also imposed on their goods, creating further
problems to the fledgling business.
Their pottery mark was at different times incised, impressed or
printed. They produced domestic table
and decorative wares in earthenware with incised decoration and a greyish glaze
partially covering the brown body and throwing the design into relief.
Reg later took over the Claypits Pottery
at Ewenny after potters Thomas A, and D Jenkins retired. Reg re-named it the “Vale Pottery.” Helyg had been founded in 1820 by Evan Jenkins.
It was later taken over by new owners and re-named the “Helyg Pottery.” Helyg continues in Ilkley, North Yorkshire.
Practice makes perfect they say, and so
it was with Reg. His specialty became a
revival of Welsh copper lusterware.
There had been a tradition in Wales of making Copper Lustre ware going
back over 200 years. This skill had
sadly died out in the late 19th Century but Reg worked hard to
re-learn the skills. Creigiau became
well-known for reproduction antique jugs and coffee sets in lustre. They exported this ware throughout the world
until the late 1970s when they were forced to close. The craft shop at the pottery was well frequented by tourists
until then.
Reg died in June, 1981 and Jean continued
to hand-make pots for another two years before she retired in 1983. Jean Howden Southcliffe died in 2000 in
Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, Wales.
