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Stamped
“Buchan Portobello Scotland Finest Stoneware” in black ink to base around a
printed Thistle mark.
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Shallow harlequin matte glazed stoneware on
inside and outside of bowl with long rounded handle moulded to top of outer
rim and extending slightly upwards.
Flat unglazed foot.
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Number
241 M3 in black ink to base
(241 is
the model, M3 is the colour code)
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Rameking Reference Number
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These ramekins are a plain
version of the many hand-painted patterned ramekins produced by Buchan under
either their own name, or as Thistleware.
Sometimes described as an Individual
Open Soup Server, the painted ramekins are sold for a much higher price than
these plain ones. Some of these
patterns were named Costa Brava, Peach and Riviera.
The range of wares made at Portobello,
spanning over two hundred years, covered much of the ceramic spectrum. Activity
was centred on several sites, clustered around the mouth of the Figgate Burn
where it enters the Firth of Forth. A
number of well-known names emerged, of which two stand out; Thomas Rathbone,
celebrated for his fine painted and printed earthenware, and Alexander Buchan,
famed for his utilitarian stoneware. From the 1830s this latter class of ware
had been produced by a succession of firms: Cornwall Brothers, Milne &
Cornwall, Milne & Smith, Thomas & Robert Tough, Thomas Tough, Murray
& Buchan, starting in 1867, and finally A. W. Buchan & Co (1878-1972).
In 1867 Alexander Buchan and Thomas Murray bought the pottery of Thomas
and Robert Tough & Company in Portobello, Edinburgh. Portobello was one of the
main centres of pottery and ceramic production in Scotland, dating back to the
1770s.
The Thistle Pottery,
established around 1770, was taken over by the Buchan family in 1867. They produced decorated and buff-glaze
stoneware, and, at the time of closure in 1972, probably constituted the last
complete industrial pottery in Scotland.
The pottery was housed in late 18th-century premises, substantially
rebuilt and extended after 1879, covering the area of an infilled 18th-century
harbour site. They traded as
Murray and Buchan, changing to A W Buchan & Co in 1882 when Murray dropped
out of the partnership. They moved to larger premises in Crieff, Perthshire.
The rise of Alexander Buchan to the fore
heralded a sixty-year period during which vast quantities of stoneware goods of
all descriptions were manufactured. The firm was inventive too, securing a
number of patents and registering several novel designs, and time was even
found to dabble in the world of art pottery with their exotic but misnamed Portobello Faience.
W. A. Gray & Sons of the Midlothian
Pottery, located nearby, produced almost identical stoneware, if not quite so
extensive in its range. They were famed for their patented white marmalade
jars. Meanwhile, at their other site, production was continued by a number of
close Buchan family members until this phase came to an end at the time of the
Second World War, dictated by a variety of changing circumstances. However, being
one of the few Scottish potteries to have survived the Depression, A.W Buchan
& Co was not about to slide into closure. Instead, the manufacture of
utilitarian stoneware was all but given up and replaced with a product of quite
different decorative stoneware.
In the early days the bread-and-butter lines were stoneware storage
vessels and stylish containers of various kinds. It was not until the end of
the nineteenth century that decorative domestic wares were produced; slip
decorated during the first half of the twentieth century and painted or printed
in the second.
Initially of a single uniform colour, a range
of multi- coloured patterns developed under the
guidance of Eric McKinnon Buchan. About a dozen of these were given names, but
the total number ran into three figures. Favourite above all proved to be the Thistle pattern (never officially
named) comprising a semi-stylised grouping featuring a thistle, heather, and
bluebells, all on a sky blue background. This was hugely popular both at home
and overseas, and was in great demand from countries with large populations of
expatriate Scots, which contributed to Buchan’s prosperity in the post-War
period.
The goods were known as Thistle ware from
1946, the cleverly designed thistle trade-mark was registered in 1949, and the
works were known as the Thistle Pottery from 1955 until its closure. When
government economic policy brought about the demise of Buchan’s at Portobello
in 1972, all seventeen girls in the decorating shop were painting the famous Thistle group.
Only the two
bottle-shaped brick kilns, dating from 1906 and 1909 respectively, now survive.
Portobello, amalgamated with Edinburgh in 1896, attracted some importance with
the discovery of valuable clay deposits in 1765. The manufacturing of bricks,
bottles and pottery became important industries until its last pottery closed
in 1972
The mark used from 1949 onwards is a thistle design with the words
BUCHAN Portobello Scotland in the thistle motif and FINEST STONEWARE beneath.
The Portobello mark was still used after the move to Crieff. Other marks
include 'Portovase' and 'Senolith' or 'Cenolith'.
Buchan ceased trading in 2000 but this was not the end
of A.W. Buchan & Co, for it relocated to Crieff’; manufacture starting
there even before it had ended at Portobello. It prospered, rather against the
odds, still producing the Thistle and some other patterns until its sudden closure in 1999. Even then
it was not totally finished, as a lone potter, Joe Hunter, and a single
decorator, Karen Cramb, continue to keep the Buchan name alive. The famous
Thistle mark has been re- registered, and Thistle ware, and some other lines, continues to be made.
