Moorcroft

Two books concerning the world of antiques have recently been released with the support of UK dealers.

With its long and varied production lines Moorcroft remains a stalwart of Design auctions.

Fifty years after buying it the first time, former dealer Ray Heath has been reunited with a beloved Moorcroft vase.

The series of relatively austere wares made by Moorcroft in the 1930s are, today at least, not the factory’s most commercial designs.

After the James Macintyre & Co factory was awarded a gold medal at the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904, Moorcroft pottery was sold in the US by a number of boutique retailers including Shreve & Co of San Francisco and Tiffany in New York.

Topping a 360-lot, £242,000 single-owner collection of Martinware and Moorcroft at Kingham & Orme (23% buyer’s premium) was a Robert Wallace Martin grotesque bird.

Two pieces of Moorcroft Pomegranate pattern made exceptional sums within a matter of 24 hours at the end of September. Both were early versions of the popular pattern and dated 1912 – the year William Moorcroft left his studio at James Macintyre to run his own factory in Cobridge.

Held over three pre-lockdown days on March 5-7, Evesham saleroom Kingham & Orme’s (23% buyer’s premium) auction was rich in the best of English and European decorative arts.

MADAM – I was pleased to see a report of the Hansons Moorcroft sale (ATG No 2430), and mention of the large and rare 18in exhibition Tiger Lily flambé vase in particular, as to my knowledge and awareness one last appeared on the market 29 years ago at Hartleys in Ilkley.

A single collection of 490 pieces of Moorcroft dating from the 1890s to modern limited editions offered an overall view of the market when sold at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium).

The recent sale of a single-owner collection of Moorcroft pottery by Kingham & Orme in Evesham demonstrated two distinct faces of the Staffordshire factory.

No good library of British art pottery literature is complete without a copy of Paul Atterbury’s 'Moorcroft'. The jacket illustration alone with its myriad tube-lined miniatures in a bewildering range of forms and patterns is particularly memorable. More than one collector has attempted to emulate the beguiling display.

While British studio potters were battling to break through in the 1930s, established factories, even Moorcroft, were struggling to survive the Great Depression.

This 7 x 4in (18 x 11cm) enamel plaque in a silvered frame (right) by Francis Arthur Edwardes is the work of the Duchess of Sutherland Cripples Guild – the metalware workshop set up to aid and educate the children of the Potteries.