Ceramics

Denby went polychrome in the Twenties, these pieces for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. Signature ‘Cottage Blue’ pieces from the 1950s, all Beswick, Sylvac? No, 1930s Denby… (Richard Dennis Publications) these in miniature.

The Denby Pottery Bicentennial in 2009 by Ivor Hughes Denby Pottery tableware is to be seen in virtually every Sixty years on department store in the UK, but few shoppers realise that Little changed at Denby Pottery before the 1920s. Developments in the 200 year-old concern was at the forefront of popular the canning industry in the 1860s and in bottling in the 1880s had reduced demand for stoneware food containers. But improvements designer art pottery in the Twenties and Thirties. Ivor in sanitation and the need for insulators in the electric and telephone Hughes went on the trail. industries created demand elsewhere. As J Bourne and Son they had become a limited company in 1916 and their post-war workforce topped 500. Precious little had changed in their decorative wares. In the kitchen Both artistically and decoratively, they were fifty years behind their Denby Pottery is in the minority of producers of tableware today. main rivals, Doulton Lambeth. Their pottery is stoneware, unlike the overwhelming majority who If you look at Denby Pottery’s nineteenth century production up to produce fine china or lighter and more fragile earthenware. Very this time, particularly by visiting their museum, it is impossible not heavy, very durable, very strong. The kind of stuff that outlasts dish- to think of Doulton Lambeth. The same stoneware, the same washers. Perhaps it’s the weight and texture that make some people colours, the same products. The designs of their Reform flasks, like it so much and others not. People still have, and love, their hunting scenes, hot water bottles and water filters make you wonder (grand) parents’ ‘Cottage Blue’ cruets, tea and coffee sets from the who copied what from whom. But Doulton Lambeth stoneware had Fifties. Those and artier designs from the Sixties onward have an explosion of colour from the 1870s, whereas Denby had stuck to become iconic and are to be found in quantity at today’s retro fairs. the same drab shades of brown, with a touch of blue here and there. But Denby’s association with tableware, then oven-to-table, is barely sixty years old. All change in the 1920s Denby Pottery introduced a number of decorative pieces in 1920. Denby Pottery’s history Collectively, they were known as Danesby Ware and were adver- In 1809, potter Joseph Jager started a single-kiln pottery in Denby, tised in their own right. Early Danesby Ware was a major departure , on the strength of local clay, water, coal and trans- from existing lines. Every colour apart from red was used. The portation, the rich clay deposits had been discovered nearby during shapes for vases, bowls and jugs were derived from ancient civilisa- road excavation works. Jager had earlier been in partnership with tions. The new shapes and decoration included a lot of art nouveau, William Bourne, a Staffordshire then Nottingham potter. William pretty much where Doulton had been thirty years earlier. Bourne came to use Denby clay and liked it so much that he bought Was the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 the reason out Jager in 1812. In his sixties, he put son Joseph in charge at both Denby Pottery’s art ware was dragged into the twentieth century? Denby and nearby . That would help explain their introduction of a decorating workshop Joseph Bourne expanded the operation further in 1832, taking over in 1923, to cope with an increased production of decorative pieces. a pottery in Park, to the north. Those three factories became Albert Colledge was its first manager, albeit with a workforce of two when the Belper operation was absorbed into Denby two years only four decorators. Nowhere near the numbers elsewhere, but a later. Then back to three in 1845 when he took over nearby Shipley step in the right direction. Albert went on to become a prolific Pottery (Shipley, Derbyshire). Then back to two in 1856, when designer at Denby, much later overlapping with son Glyn, perhaps Shipley Pottery was absorbed into Denby. Joseph Bourne died in Denby’s best remembered name today? In the Thirties, more and 1860, leaving Joseph (junior) in charge. All operations were more purely decorative pieces were introduced - vases, bookends, centralised in Denby in 1861 by absorbing Codnor Park. The animals, more vases. The designers also applied their wit and Bourne pottery empire may have contracted a little, but the Denby humour to utility ware such as hot water bottles. site had never been larger. It had expanded from one man and his Denby enjoyed barely one decade of exceptional designer art kiln into a consolidation of four sizeable potteries within fifty years. pottery before the recession hit, then the war, then post-war There were reasons other than the clay, water, coal and transport. rationing and austerity. Innovative artistic designs of kitchenware The Industrial Revolution had created conurbations where people and dinner services followed afterwards, and still happen today, but needed containers to transport and store foodstuffs. Earthenware there was never to be a wide scale return to art for art’s sake. broke too easily. Molten glass still had to be worked by hand and production was heavily taxed. Tin cans still had to be made, filled Further reading: Denby Pottery 1809-1997, Irene and Gordon and sealed by hand, usually only for military use. So there was an Hopwood. ISBN 0 903685 52 3. Published by Richard Dennis enormous demand for inexpensive stoneware, particularly in the Publications, £28 direct. industrial North. Denby Pottery prospered with its own innovative Denby Stonewares: A Collector's Guide, Graham & Alva Key. and patented processes. ISBN 1-874558-03-5. Published by Ems and Ens Ltd, £17.95 direct.

ANTIQUES INFO - November/December 08 Ceramics

Denby Pottery’s advance into decorative art pottery The Edward VII Coronation Mug of 1911 was in the 1920s was labelled collectively as ‘Danesby commissioned by a Derbyshire village. ‘Nipper’ Ware’. There were scores of designs within that ashtray, the candlestick in Electric Blue and the label, here ‘Orient Ware’ (c1925). green duck are all 1930s art pottery production and part of a collector’s own bicentennial display next to BBR Advertising Museum, Elsecar (Barnsley).

Water filters.

Denby sells well in Derbyshire. A reform flask priced at £550 at Bakewell Antique Centre.

These hot water bottles are part of the extensive and interesting display in the museum at Denby Pottery Visitor Centre.

These Denby Pottery 1830s Reform flasks might easily be mistaken for Doulton & Watts. Who was first? Displays at the Visitor Centre’s museum just shout Doulton Lambeth - an unfair assumption.

Horticultural labels produced for Oxford University in the 1850s - exquisite.

John and Jeanette Clarke specialise in art pottery and exhibit at Jaguar Fairs’ events at Kedleston Hall and University. At Kedleston in June Denby specialists Graham and Alva Key exhibit they were offering these ‘Pastel Blue’ bookends for regularly at DMG Newark - they wrote the book. A butter churn from 1835. a little under £200. ANTIQUES INFO - November/December 08