Bretby pottery
Gill
I'm writing to ask if anyone out there can tell me where I can get
information on Bretby pottery. I've just started to collect it,
inspired by a family link, but have been unable to find out much about
it. All help gratefully received,
TIA,
Gill
tran...@finfin.com
Dear Gill,
All I know of is "English Decorative Ceramics" by John Bartlett,
Kevin Francis Publishing Ltd. London,1989.
And it is not an exhaustive examination, it has really only a couple
of pages on Bretby. But really worth seeing, I think.
Gives an overview and quite a bit of good info
in a small amount of space. But what I mean to say is that you may
not want to invest in buying the book
since it does not deal extensively with your subject
and so you might wish to see if you can borrow it from the library.
I looked in both bibliofind.com and amazon.com and didn't see anything.
Hopefully there are better books on Bretby on your side of the pond.
Best Wishes,
T.
===
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Les Hazlewood
<gi...@castle67.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm writing to ask if anyone out there can tell me where I can get
> information on Bretby pottery. I've just started to collect it,
> inspired by a family link, but have been unable to find out much about
> it. All help gratefully received,
> TIA,
> Gill
Bretby belongs to the school of what is commonly referred to as British
Art Pottery - a collection of quite dissimilar pottery styles that were
produced during the period from the mid-19th to early 20th century, and
which were major participants of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain.
To the best of my knowledge there is no specialist book on Bretby, but it
will get a mention in any reference book on the topic, the best one being
(this book is out of print but you should be able to get it via a good
library since it is a "classic" for people interested in the subject):
V Bergesen,
Encyclopaedia of British Art Pottery 1870 - 1920,
Barrie and Jenkins Ltd,
1991
ISBM 0-7126-3822-9
There are some references to the Bretby pottery in specialist publications
which are quoted in this book, but they will not be easy to obtain (eg The
Pottery Gazette of May 1905, pp 541 - 543, and June 1915, 645 - 647).
To give some context, other major producers of British Art Pottery over
this period were Aller Vale (Devon), Ashby Potters' Guild (Derbyshire),
Ault (Derbyshire), Bernard Moore (Stoke-on-Trent), Brannam (Barnstable),
Burmantofts (Leeds), Della Robia (Birkenhead), De Morgan (London), Doulton
(London), Elton (Somerset), Linthorpe (Middlesborough), Martin Brothers
(London), Maw & Co (Shropshire), Mintons (London & Stoke-On-Trent),
Moorcroft (Buslam), Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian (Manchester), Ruskin
(Birmingham) and Wemyss (Kircaldy). In general Bretby is the "poor
cousin" to these more famous producers and Bretby pieces can still be
acquired for a modest outlay (say for an early small undistinguished
Bretby vase 20 - 50 UKP, for a similar piece by Burmantofts 50 - 100 UKP,
and for a similar piece by Linthorpe 100 - 200 UKP).
If you really want to know more about Bretby pottery, then read on ....
Brief History and Background ....
Christopher Dresser (1834 - 1904) was a famous Victorian designer (some
people argue that he was the first real "designer") who produced designs
for many different media (jewellery, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, etc).
He was engaged as Art Director by the Linthorpe pottery (1879 - 1889) to
design a large proportion of their output. The manager of Linthorpe was
Henry Tooth (1842 - 1918). Henry Tooth left Linthorpe in 1882 to set up
the Bretby Art Pottery in partnership with William Ault (1841 - 1929) at
Woodville, Derbyshire. (William Ault had formerly managed the T G Green &
Co pottery (1864 - ) at Church Gresley, Derbyshire - yes the one that is
still in existence producing, amongst other things, blue/white striped
table/kitchenware.) The Bretby pottery traded as "Tooth and Ault" from
1883 - 1887. William Ault left the partnership in 1887 to set up his own
Ault pottery (1887 - 1922) at Swadlincote, Derbyshire. After the
partnership break, Bretby pottery continued trading as "Tooth & Co". When
the Linthorpe Pottery closed in 1889, it is believed that many of the
pottery workers then went to work at the Ault, Burmantofts and Bretby
potteries, and it is also known that these potteries purchased many of the
moulds used by the Linthorpe pottery (much of the output was slip cast).
It is known that Christopher Dresser was also employed as a designer by
the Ault pottery. So you often see very similar (some Dresser designed)
pieces produced by all of these potteries.
In the early years of the 20th century, demand for art pottery declined,
and most art pottery production had ceased by the start of World War I.
New "art potteries" began to appear after World War I, but these were
mostly "studio potteries" influenced by the work of Bernard Leach.
Burmantofts stopped producing art pottery in 1904 (and stopped producing
its range of architectural faience in 1914). In 1922 the Ault pottery
merged with Ashby Potters' Guild to form Ault and Tunnicliffe and they
stopped producing art pottery in about 1926. Unusually, the Bretby
pottery is documented as continuing to produce art pottery until well
after the end of World War II. However, there is little information
available about its type of production since the 1950's (except that most
of it was industrial pottery), and it closed only recently (I'm not sure
exactly when, but sometime between about 1995 - 1997).
Production ....
Not surprisingly, given its long working life, Bretby produced wares
appear in a wide variety of styles (some IMHO unworthy of the name of "art
pottery" and any connection with the Arts and Crafts movement). It is
said that after William Ault left the pottery, Henry Tooth became wildly
adventurous and produced unusual wares in great variety, the main types of
which are as follows:
Early pieces are typically vases with blending and striated multicoloured
glazes very similar to the work produced by the Linthorpe pottery,
sometimes also exhibiting Dresser design characteristics.
Pieces in a wide variety of shapes and sizes ranging from large
jardinieres and stands (height about 1 - 2 m) down to umbrella stands,
vases, bowls, ash trays and pin dishes (width about 5 cm) in self coloured
glazes - Rose Barri, Heliotrope, Saxe Blue, Green and Blood Red are
common. A similar range of larger pieces with relief moulding (often
floral, but also animal and grotesque faces, and faces of characters from
Dickens novels) and multicoloured natural decoration.
Pieces (mostly vases, but also other smaller pieces as above) with a
surface intended to appear to be something other than ceramic (ivory,
wood, pewter, brass, bronze, copper, polished granite, cloisonne, etc).
The metallic pieces are sometimes inset with ceramic "jewels" believed to
have been obtained from the Ruskin pottery (1898 - 1933).
A similar range of pieces with hand-painted decoration depicting birds,
animals, floral and landscape scenes.
A range of pieces in various glazes and various forms of decoration in the
shape of bamboo with relief carved oriental scenes and figures.
Figures, including birds, animals and grotesques, and also busts (Dickens,
Shakespeare, Scott, Burns, etc) with natural multicoloured decoration or
other (eg self coloured) glazes. Some of the figures are amongst the best
of the Bretby production, but they are easily damaged so look out for any
signs of restoration.
A range of "trompe l'oeil" or "deception" pieces including nuts, biscuits,
tomatoes, reels of cotton etc.
Bergesen's book gives a more detailed breakdown on the types of wares
produced, including dates for the year of introduction of each particular
line.
Markings ....
Bretby wares are printed or impresses with the word BRETBY below a
stylised rising sun. The word ENGLAND was added after 1891, and MADE IN
ENGLAND after 1901. Some wares produced between 1883 and about 1900 also
have an HT (for Henry Tooth) monogram. The pottery registered many of its
designs from 1884 onwards, and so pieces are often impressed with
registered design numbers. The design numbers in use by a particular year
are given below:
Year Design number(s)
in use in that year
1891 917
1896 1065 - 1095
1897 1116
1898 1222
1907 1678
1908 1790
1911 1852
1924 2326 - 2701
1929 2985 - 3045
However, treat such design numbers and years with considerable caution.
Just because a piece has a low (ie in the above range) design number
doesn't necessarily mean that it was produced in the corresponding year
shown in the table - Bretby used their moulds over several years, and also
re-used them several times in years much later than their original
registration. On the other hand, a high model number (ie in the 10,000 or
so range) does mean that it will be a "later" piece and will have been
produced after the end the main period of art pottery production and
popularity in Britain.
Accurately dating Bretby pottery - even to within 10 - 20 years - is
difficult (see above), and needs to be done by taking into account the
style and shape of the piece, the type and quality of ceramic used, the
type and quality of glaze used, the style of any decoration, any ware to
the base, any degradation of the glaze, etc, besides just using any
impressed design model number. Unless you have other supporting evidence,
you should certainly not take the word of most dealers regarding the date
of manufacture of a Bretby piece (who in most cases will attach as early a
date as they possibly can to a piece in an attempt to raise its value).
Hope you enjoy your collecting, best wishes
Les Hazlewood
--
Ignore the anti-spamming address given above and sent any replies to:
Email : try hazlewlj in place of qwerty
Tel : +44 (0)121 359 3611 x 4271
Fax: : +44 (0)121 333 6215
Smail : Dr L J Hazlewood, Computer Science, Aston University,
Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, United Kingdom
troutfishinginamericashorty
That is the best piece of writing and research to grace this
newsgroup in quite some time. Many thanks to you.
T.
====
On Tue, 13 Apr 1999 11:23:59 +0100 qwe...@aston.ac.uk (Les Hazlewood)
wrote:
Posted via Talkway - http://www.talkway.com
Surf Usenet at home, on the road, and by email -- always at Talkway.
Smorgass Bored
I agree with Trancery,that was quite a post.
Now,why couldn't you keep that damned Exxon Valdez of the reef????????
Huh? What?
oops ! nevermind,
Doug W.
~>*)))>< Big fish eat Little fish ><(((*<~
