Carlton Ware

Designer
Maker	Carlton Ware
Marks	Black Ink Stamp to base. “Carlton Ware Handpainted Made in England Trade Mark Registered Australian Design”
Description	Carlton Ware, "Windswept" pattern . Ramekins; Deep slipware teacup bowl with round foot. White glaze to exterior with green leaf pattern.  Deep green glaze to interior, similar to their "Vert Royale" colour. Knife-blade handle, tapering to rounded point at end.   Platter; Kidney shaped dish with stylized leaf decoration (Windswept design) in green on an off-white background, inset moulded ring to fit ramekins.  length 270mm width 95mm.
Condition	Good with some staining and age related crazing to foot and bottom of bowl interior.
Number	Stamped 2425
Production Date	late 1950s (after 1958)
Width	102mm
Depth	60mm
Length (with handle)	145mm
Weight	150gm
Volume	320ml
Acquisition	Camberwell Sunday Market 27 Nov 2011
Rameking Reference Number	CAW 001 CAW 002 CAW 003 CAW 004 CAW 005

Much is available on the web about Carlton Ware, so I won't put too much more.  For more, there is a link to a good site at the end of my blog.  They were established in 1890 in Copeland Street, Stoke-on-Trent, England.  The company was formed as a partnership between James Frederick Wiltshaw and William H and James A Robinson from which the company name of “Wiltshaw and Robinson twas formed.  Quickly becoming a leading manufacturer in an already crowded market, they named the factory “Carlton Works”.  In 1894 they added the trade name of Carlton Ware to the swallow design on the backstamp to create a new trade-mark.


Since the 17th Century, Stoke Upon Trent, situated between Liverpool and Nottingham, has been known for its pottery manufacturing.  Consisting of the six towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton, the presence locally of plentiful supplies of clay and coal led to the development of the pottery industry.  Construction of the Trent and Mersey canal enabled the importation of china-clay from Cornwall together with other materials and facilitated the production of creamware and bone china.  Stoke Upon Trent is still the largest clayware producer in the world and the centre of the British ceramic industry.  Captain Smith of "Titanic" fame came from around Stoke Upon Trent.  China-clay is still a major industry in Cornwall.


I must admit to a bit of fifty cents each way with these because they are marked as having a “Registered Australian Design.”  The stamp is about the only Australian thing about them though.  Carlton Ware has always been popular with collectors and as a result, were copied by the Japanese, even then.  The owner of Carlton Ware, Mr Wiltshaw (Frederick Cuthbert) realized that designs registered in Australia under the South-East Asian Treaty Organization of September 1954  (SEATO) could not legally be copied by the Japanese.  (SEATO ended in 1977).  As a result of this, a lot of their output had the design registered in Australia.  Be careful of websites telling you that the "Australian" designs are 1930s.  That is crap, since the treaty didn't come into being until 1954.

The 1950’s created an explosion in output and creativity and were easily the most productive period for the company.  In 1958 the company was renamed “Carlton Ware Limited” with Cuthbert Wiltshaw, son of William as Managing Director.  Cuthbert died in 1966 and the company was then sold to Wood and Sons, another pottery that was even older than Carlton Ware.  They were an earthenware manufacturer at the Trent potteries and later the Stanley pottery, Burslem.  Sadly, Wood and Sons went into receivership and eventually folded in 2005. 


Their designs vary from the simple elegance of these pieces, to the exuberant cabbage leaf patterns, and all in between.   Like a lot of makers in the 80s, Carlton Ware went into receivership in 1989 but was unsuccessfully revived in 1990-92.  In 1997, Francis Joseph of the Carlton Ware Design Centre, Roslyn Works, Stoke on Trent acquired the company that today, continues making novelty items for the collector market.  The Copeland Street site was redeveloped as offices in 1989.

The Old Carlton Ware Copeland Street Works

Georg Schmider

Designer
Maker	Vereinigte Zeller Fabriken Georg Schmider
Marks	Stamped "Zell GS AM Harmersbach Handgemalt Opatija"
Description	Creamware slip pipkin with bell shaped bowl rising from pronounced circular foot.  Hand-painted floral to one side with three-toned speckled colour to top of bowl covered with a clear gloss glaze. Closed end knob handle
Condition	Good, with no chips. Some shrinkage crazing to glaze on interior of bowl.
Number	4680
Production Date	1970s
Width	103mm
Depth	55mm
Length (with handle)	141mm
Weight	175gm
Volume	240ml
Acquisition	Oakleigh Rotary Sunday Market
Rameking Reference Number	ZGS 001 ZGS002 ZGS 003 ZGS 004

More properly described as pipkins, but most likely the remnants of a fondue set, the pattern name of these items is named after the popular resort town of Opatija in Croatia about 90 km from Trieste. They are marked on the back as being made in Zell Am Harmersbach, a small historic picture postcard Black Forest market town in Baden-Wurttemberg Germany.  Zell Am Harmsbach is the home of the Hahn und Henne (Rooster and Hen) pottery factory.  Fabulously kitsch in the manner of those modern 1970s multicoloured vases the Germans made.  So tacky that one of my followers would love them.


Like many long-term makers, they have experienced highs and lows.  Known today as "Zeller Keramik'.  We know (because of typical German efficiency) that the pottery opened on the 22nd of October 1794 when Joseph Burger began an earthenware pottery.  Almost half their production was porcelain by the mid 19th Century.   The late 19th and early 20th Centuries saw two town fires almost destroy the works, known as the Upper and Lower Factories, just outside the town gates.   


By 1925 they employed over 500 people, but Georg Schmider died in 1934.  His son-in-law Heinrich Heiss took over the business, then Heinrich's son Gunter ran the company later on.  Unlike a lot of German businesses, they operated successfully for a time during World-War-2.  Flower pots were not high on the list of targets for Bomber Command;  but they had to close for a few years from 1942 because of a shortage of raw-materials.  They recommenced in 1946 and eventually closed the old Upper Factory in 1963.


The recession of the late 1980s saw another disaster averted when a Real Estate company took them over in 1988.  Like Denby in England, their parent-company got into difficulties and the pottery was sold in 1994.  Known as Zeller Keramik Geschwister Hillebrand G.m.b.H since 1997, the company still continues successfully today.  There is also a porcelain museum operating from the old Haiss manor house.  I have added a bit more about this company on the post for Zeller Keramic if you are interested.

 

Zell Am Harmersbach

Zeller Today

Denby

The Old Denby Factory

Designer	Albert Colledge
Maker	Denby Pottery
Marks	Almost illegibly stamped “Peasant Ware England” in black to base.
Description	Wide, low sided slipware bowl with large loop handle.  Pink interior with grey exterior.  Semi-gloss glaze over entire body except footring.
Number
Production Date	Early 1950s
Width	125mm
Depth	40mm
Length (with handle)	208mm
Weight	385gm
Volume	250ml
Acquisition	Waverley Antique Market  7 Nov 2011.
Rameking Reference Number	DEN 001 DEN 002 DEN 003

Available in Australia at the upper end of the market, Denby pottery comes from a 200 year old English company in Denby, Lancashire.     They originally made china, porcelain and stoneware tableware, as well as branching out into glassware and cooking utensils.  A body of clay was discovered in 1806 during roadworks and two locals, Jacob and Brohier began making stoneware bottles.  Later, in 1815, local businessman William Bourne and his sons John and Joseph took over.  William came from a family of potters.  They later took over a couple of other potteries and named the company "Joseph Bourne and Company", a name that endured.  Their pottery is usually marked "Bourne Denby England.


Expanding rapidly because of the new railways criss-crossing England, they dug 25 tons of clay daily to be used in their patented kilns.  Denby produced a huge range of pottery during the 19th Century, from ink wells to water filters and everything in between, producing decorative as well as utilitarian wares in clay, slip and terra-cotta

Denby continued to make decorative homewares until the early 1950s when they then began to concentrate on tablewares, such as these ramekins, wartime restrictions being recently lifted.  Designed by Albert Colledge (1891-1972) in 1951, this “Peasantware” pattern is an example.   It is claimed that they can withstand oven temperatures, but I wouldn’t try it, just in case.  Ramekins are intended to be used to cook food in, but, due to their age and rarity, don’t risk it.  These are earlier than their “Oven to Table” ware and are described as being “tough, ovenproof and long lasting”.  An early Denby catalogue shows "egg poachers" but are clearly ramekins.  

Glyn and Albert Colledge 1948

Like many companies in the 1980s, Denby was taken over.  In 1987 they were bought by the Coloroll group, an English home furnishings company from Manchester who themselves went into receivership in 1990.  Unwilling to let the company die, Denby was then subject to a management buyout by the Managing Director and a few other executives, and subsequently publicly floated in 1994; it was a bargain.  Bought for 6 million, it floated for around 40 million, although a lot went to pay off debt.  Today, Denby still produce a wide variety of products including fine china and porcelain, as well as that old staple, stoneware.

 Since the management buyout, Denby has purchased other companies such as Burgess, Dorling & Leigh, Poole and Leeds Pottery.  Since then, they have opened many more retail outlets and increased staff.  As well as pottery, they also make cast-iron products.

Denby now sells into more than thirty countries including Japan, South Korea, North America and China.  In 2011 export sales increased over 30%.  Despite this increase in exports, production remains in the UK.  A new distribution warehouse is planned, as is a new visitor centre, shopping centre and hotel are well progressed.

The handles on this range are a large folded loop.  Not too many other makers used this design, although you can see similar handles on some of the later Diana (U63) ramekins and many of Charles Wilton's ramekins.  Design copyright by the Australians seems to have been viewed as somewhat flexible in those days.

Tremar

Designer	Roger Birkitt
Maker	Tremar UK
Marks	Stamped “Tremar UK” into side of base.
Description	Lidded ramekin, straight sided bowl with flared lip and flat base.  Hollow handle fitted at an upward angle, with hole in outer end.  Swirl decoration to inside of bowl and lid created during throwing.  Lid has impressed design on outside edge and small rolled clay handle to centre of lid.  Matte glaze to interior with unglazed rim and exterior base.  Interior of lid has matte glaze with small patch of matte glaze around lid handle.
Number
Production Date	Late 1970s
Width	140mm
Depth	55mm  (with lid 80mm)
Length (with handle)	190mm
Weight	465gm
Volume	500ml
Acquisition	Salvo Stores
Rameking Reference Number	TRE 001 TRE 002 TRE 003

Named after the Eastern Cornish villages of Tremar, (Tremar, Tremar Coombe, Tremar Upper and Tremar Lower) the pottery was started in 1962 by Roger Birkitt, then later his wife Doreen worked there.  For the geographically challenged, Cornwall is the pointy bit stuck on the bottom left hand corner of England and the Tremars are in the middle near the eastern border.  For the cunning linguists, Tremar is Cornish for Mark's Farm.  Originally hand-thrown for the tourist market, Tremar earthenware paid homage to Cornwall's Celtic past.  Cornwall is one of the Celtic nations trying to reclaim their history and ancient language.    Tremar was an early example of good quality naïve style retro pottery that was marketed to collectors wanting complete sets.  Now collected like the much better known Cornish pottery "Troika".

Expanding in the 1970s, to mostly moulded wares, Tremar produced distinctive decorative wares of “tourist collectibles” such as figurines, including various animals and cars.   Eventually they had three potteries in Tremar and the neighbouring town of Liskeard, and sold all over the U.K, & U.S.A, and probably Australia because that is where I got these ramekins.  The Birkitts ended their association in 1980 and the pottery closed after going into administration in 1983 after their kiln exploded and rebuilding costs proved prohibitive.  Graham Alcock of Shelf Pottery in Yorkshire later acquired some of the Tremar moulds and produced similar wares for a short time, so look at the marks.  I am surprised Tremar closed because unused pottery kilns were not exactly in short supply in the UK back then.  You could say they went out with a bang.

Earthenware is a moderately porous pottery body that is fired to a temperature somewhat below that required to produce a vitreous article.  Ceramic vessels are fired to temperatures of 700-1200° centigrade. It is generally opaque, porous, course ceramic and made from potash, sand, feldspar and clay.  It is one of the oldest materials used in pottery. 

Classically, most earthenware has a red coloring, due to the use of iron rich clays.  However, this is not always the case, and for the modern potter, white and in the case of Tremar, buff colored earthenware clays were commercially available.  It can be as thin as bone china and other porcelains, though it is not translucent and is more easily chipped.  Earthernware is also less strong, less tough, and more porous than stoneware, but its low cost and easier working compensate for these deficiencies. Due to its higher porosity, earthenware must usually be completely glazed in order to be watertight, this isn’t.

There is a quote about Tremar that I think is appropriate; "If you had to design pottery perfect for Bilbo Baggins and Hobbits I think this would be it!  There is a certain ancient charm about it.  Tremar pottery is so earthy, rustic and charming-but not without a high level of craftsmanship.  The pieces are beautifully and confidently hand-thrown and so lovely to the touch-very smooth, very matt glazes and with a great use of pattern, colour, form and decoration."

Jemba

Designer	Nixon Pottery, Sydney NSW.
Maker	Nixon Pottery 6a Mabel Street Hurstville
Marks	Incised “Jemba 118” to unglazed base
Description	Heart shaped thin-sided slipware bowl with clear gloss overglaze.  One piece moulded handle cast as part of bowl.
Decoration	Clear overglaze with brown interior. Hand painted Aboriginal motif painted to interior bottom of bowl.
Condition	Good condition.  No chips or cracks.  Some crazing consistent with age to overglaze.
Number
Production Date	1954/55
Width	110mm
Depth	37mm
Length (with handle)	160mm
Weight
Volume
Acquisition

This slipware ramekin was made in the 1950s and 1960s by the small company, Nixon Pottery 6a Mabel Street Hurstville, Sydney, New South Wales, not far from the quarry in South Hurstville.  It was one of dozens of small potteries operating in Sydney after the Second World War. Its main rival, was the Martin Boyd Pottery, the most significant pottery in Sydney at this time and was responsible for wares decorated with Aboriginal-style motifs. This Nixon ramekin features similar decoration - hand painted in a stylized manner and representing Aboriginal motifs that were a common feature of Australian pottery of the era. 

Aboriginal-style imagery was immensely popular in Australia after the Second World War when local designers, and Australians at large, were searching for a national cultural identity. Australia's Indigenous heritage provided a rich source of inspiration. Most European makers had no concept of the inappropriateness of this, nor saw how they trivialized Aboriginal culture.  Designers and craftspeople alike looked towards Indigenous art, particularly to rock art, to source and modify motifs to suit contemporary fashions. The result was a stylized imagery that often blended the colours of the desert landscape with forms of cross-hatching and references to dot painting, native plants and animals, animal footprints, spears, boomerangs and Aboriginal people themselves. These appeared on the inexhaustible range of domestic wares produced at semi-commercial potteries in Australia in the 1950s.

While some of these domestic wares were made from thrown clay, many were moulded or slipcast and were usually decorated with mix-and-match colours and painted designs. The most popular forms of domestic ware included coffee sets, ramekin sets, dinner sets, and ashtrays and savoury dishes shaped like boomerangs. With restrictions on imports continuing after the war, these items proved immensely popular in Australia and featured in home-living journals, like 'Australian Home Beautiful'. Arising from this trend was an overseas market for Australian wares.  It appears that Nixon, like many other makers, did not need to advertize as it sold direct to stores.  It was these stores that advertized as required.

The pottery was made by "Jemba Pottery Pty Ltd", a short-lived New South Wales company operated by Dallas Raymond Nixon and his wife Betty.  They started out as "Nixons Art Productions" and became a company on the 12th of July 1954.  The company went bankrupt and folded on the 15th of September 1955, possibly due to ill health.  It couldn't have been too bad because Dallas didn't die until 1992.