welsh lusterware
Ok ok... I promise I will post more with Halloween pics soon. But it's one in the morning and I'm doing research and I want to share. I might have to make a more regular thing about posting about my collectibles.
I cleaned up around my old 1940's kitchen queen today, and so poked around some of my collectible pottery and dishes. I have a coffee set I picked up at a thrift shop that I really don't know much about, so it seemed a good time to look it up.
First I looked up copper luster ware. The coffee set is red colored clay that has been fired with a shiny copper glaze, and inside the cups the glaze is a brilliant blue. It is very plain, but the contrast between the copper and the blue is striking. My only real clue is that printed on the bottom was the maker and where it was made.
Anyway, when I looked up copper luster ware, I found a lot of information, but none of it much help. Most copper luster ware was made in the 17-1800's, and I knew right off that mine was not that old. It is much simpler and more modern in shape and design, and the marks on the bottom look modern to me.
So I tried again. I found this info on an ebay listing, and later found it repeated on a pottery site. They wrote...
Reg and Jean Southcliffe set up the Southcliffe Ceramic Company in Creigiau near Cardiff in Wales in 1947. A year later they changed the name to Creigiau Pottery.
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. They also made traditional Welsh lustre ware.
In 1962, while still operating Creigiau Pottery, Reg took over the running of the Claypits Pottery at Ewenny after Tom Jenkins retired, and re-named it Vale Pottery. Subsequently Vale Pottery was taken by new owners and again re-named Helyg Pottery.
Reg died in 1981 and Jean continued for two years before retiring. Their mark was sometimes incised, sometimes impressed and sometimes printed.
I was quite interested. Here is a piece that looks like it could be from my own set, also selling on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/GOLD-LUSTRE-PITCHER-AND-CUP-SIGNED-CREIGIAU-CARDIFF_W0QQitemZ200391292053QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea8407495
And here is a fancier set (which I have serious envy over) that I found on another site.
http://www.ioffer.com/i/101046222
I also found this interesting post on Rootsweb
Hi there,
I picked my 'ears' when I saw Creigiau. When I was teaching, and young
enough to have extra energy, I spent every Saturday underglaze-
free-handpainting pottery pieces for Mr Southcliffe, the founder/owner, of
the Creigiau Potteries, in Creigiau, near Pentyrch, which is near Cardiff.
He specialised in lustre ware, having deveolped his own recipe for lustre.
Lustre gives a piece of china a shiny, bronzed look, which can be polished
with brasso - carefully - to keep it shining.
After 7 telephone calls around the area in Wales, I was told that it had
moved to the Museum of Wales, in St Fagans, nr. Cardiff, I phoned there, but
it was no longer there. The Keeper of the Arts Dept,. Mr Andrew Renton,
searched for me and later phoned back to say he'd found out that Mr
Southcliffe had died in 1983, and that his wife Jean had retired in 1983. So
it looks to me as though the pottery really has closed down.
I could find out no more, but it seems as though your Creigiau Lustre must
now be collector pieces, so hang on to them, because I would say that with
the pottery gone, it means a greater demand for Creigiau Pottery.
Cheers, Dilys, in Essex
Then I found a whole wonderful article about an apprenticeship at that pottery in the 1970’s. Have I mentioned I adore the internet? The article describes what it was like to work there, and how they made some of their items. Having worked a bit with clay in college, and having known some potters, it was quite fascinating.
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:LgquXgvESd4J:oceanlightsgallery.net/Creigiau%2520Pottery%2520document.pdf+CREIGIAU+pottery&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a
Is it bad that I find research fun? It was great to find out about this coffee set that I have had for several years now. It was nice to find that I had something unusual and hard to find, that is becoming more collectable in its own right, and is not just a copy of an older style of pottery. I had only bought it because I enjoyed the color contrast between the blue and copper, and it had sat for so long in the shop I worked at that it had been significantly marked down. Since then I have grown very attached to it, but didn’t learn anything about it.
Hmmm… What do you wish to learn about next?
I cleaned up around my old 1940's kitchen queen today, and so poked around some of my collectible pottery and dishes. I have a coffee set I picked up at a thrift shop that I really don't know much about, so it seemed a good time to look it up.
First I looked up copper luster ware. The coffee set is red colored clay that has been fired with a shiny copper glaze, and inside the cups the glaze is a brilliant blue. It is very plain, but the contrast between the copper and the blue is striking. My only real clue is that printed on the bottom was the maker and where it was made.
Anyway, when I looked up copper luster ware, I found a lot of information, but none of it much help. Most copper luster ware was made in the 17-1800's, and I knew right off that mine was not that old. It is much simpler and more modern in shape and design, and the marks on the bottom look modern to me.
So I tried again. I found this info on an ebay listing, and later found it repeated on a pottery site. They wrote...
Reg and Jean Southcliffe set up the Southcliffe Ceramic Company in Creigiau near Cardiff in Wales in 1947. A year later they changed the name to Creigiau Pottery.
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. They also made traditional Welsh lustre ware.
In 1962, while still operating Creigiau Pottery, Reg took over the running of the Claypits Pottery at Ewenny after Tom Jenkins retired, and re-named it Vale Pottery. Subsequently Vale Pottery was taken by new owners and again re-named Helyg Pottery.
Reg died in 1981 and Jean continued for two years before retiring. Their mark was sometimes incised, sometimes impressed and sometimes printed.
I was quite interested. Here is a piece that looks like it could be from my own set, also selling on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/GOLD-LUSTRE-PITCHER-AND-CUP-SIGNED-CREIGIAU-CARDIFF_W0QQitemZ200391292053QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea8407495
And here is a fancier set (which I have serious envy over) that I found on another site.
http://www.ioffer.com/i/101046222
I also found this interesting post on Rootsweb
Hi there,
I picked my 'ears' when I saw Creigiau. When I was teaching, and young
enough to have extra energy, I spent every Saturday underglaze-
free-handpainting pottery pieces for Mr Southcliffe, the founder/owner, of
the Creigiau Potteries, in Creigiau, near Pentyrch, which is near Cardiff.
He specialised in lustre ware, having deveolped his own recipe for lustre.
Lustre gives a piece of china a shiny, bronzed look, which can be polished
with brasso - carefully - to keep it shining.
After 7 telephone calls around the area in Wales, I was told that it had
moved to the Museum of Wales, in St Fagans, nr. Cardiff, I phoned there, but
it was no longer there. The Keeper of the Arts Dept,. Mr Andrew Renton,
searched for me and later phoned back to say he'd found out that Mr
Southcliffe had died in 1983, and that his wife Jean had retired in 1983. So
it looks to me as though the pottery really has closed down.
I could find out no more, but it seems as though your Creigiau Lustre must
now be collector pieces, so hang on to them, because I would say that with
the pottery gone, it means a greater demand for Creigiau Pottery.
Cheers, Dilys, in Essex
Then I found a whole wonderful article about an apprenticeship at that pottery in the 1970’s. Have I mentioned I adore the internet? The article describes what it was like to work there, and how they made some of their items. Having worked a bit with clay in college, and having known some potters, it was quite fascinating.
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:LgquXgvESd4J:oceanlightsgallery.net/Creigiau%2520Pottery%2520document.pdf+CREIGIAU+pottery&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a
Is it bad that I find research fun? It was great to find out about this coffee set that I have had for several years now. It was nice to find that I had something unusual and hard to find, that is becoming more collectable in its own right, and is not just a copy of an older style of pottery. I had only bought it because I enjoyed the color contrast between the blue and copper, and it had sat for so long in the shop I worked at that it had been significantly marked down. Since then I have grown very attached to it, but didn’t learn anything about it.
Hmmm… What do you wish to learn about next?