This is our 100th post – and we’re turning to one of our favourites – artist & illustrator, Kenneth Townsend. In particular we’re focusing on his ‘Menagerie‘ series of tiles. These tiles received a Design Centre award.

The ‘Menagerie’ series featured over 20 different animal designs. He also produced the ‘Horoscope’ and ‘London’ tile series.

A new Flickr Group celebrating the works of Kenneth Townsend has just been formed. You’re welcome to join and add your own images or just come and have a look!

If you’re interested in starting your own collection, they’re often available in vintage stores. They also come up for sale on eBay quite regularly.  Have a look at seller simoncurtis. He’s had quite a few of these tiles for sale recently – and has kindly allowed us to use some of his photos in this blog post.

We were out & about in Huddersfield the other day and took some photos of these amazing tiled mosaics.

They’re situated in a 1960s-built precinct development in the town centre- they really capture the era.

On the subject of tiles, we recently put this image on Flickr. It’s a 1960s tile by Platt depicting a prince on horseback with a hunting falcon – we absolutely love it! We’re planning on having it framed.

We got this vintage bird tile ready-framed which is very effective. We think it was made by Maw & Co. It reminds us of Lisa Larson in style. We bought it from Wowie Zowie in Chorlton. This shop is well worth a visit if you’re in Manchester – they have some lovely stuff, imaginatively displayed.

This large tile/plaque is indeed by Lisa Larson – she’s a real favourite of ours! It was designed for Gustavsberg of Sweden in the 1960s.

Here it is in its usual home on a shelf in our lounge.

Here’s another one of our vintage tiles in situ – this one’s Italian – it sits happily on our bathroom shelf. Here it is in close up.

The most recent addition to our little collection was picked up yesterday. It’s quite different to the others in the fact that it represents a real place – it depicts the Euromast in Rotterdam designed in the 1950s – we really like the modernist feel to it.

The final item in our burgeoning tile collection is by Kenneth Townsend. We featured it before in our Z is for… Zoo blog post.

The lion is an early piece from his Menagerie range. Hopefully we’ll be able to find some of his other animals to fill our shelves!

To mark the end of one year & the start of another, here’s a collection of some of our most popular photos we posted on Flickr in 2008.

Click on the links below to see them in more detail.

Happy 2009!

1. Recent purchases, 2. Vintage enamel teapot, 3. Vintage purple 1970s twin bell Westclox alarm clock, 4. 1950s biscuit tin (detail), 5. Vintage coffee pot collection, 6. Figgjo Flint ‘Daisy’ cup & saucer, 7. Vintage storage tins, 8. Vintage ‘Dolly Days’ coffee set, 9. Vintage painted serving tray, 10. Coffee for 2, 11. Still life in orange, 12. Vintage Denby Arabesque collection, 13. Hornsea mug collection, 14. Vintage Lundtofte stainless steel & rosewood coffee set, 15. Orange Felt Elephant, 16. Home Sweet Home, 17. Vintage dominoes, 18. Vintage pottery spoon rest, 19. This week’s haul, 20. Collection of vintage Staffordshire Pottery & Kiln Craft mugs, 21. On the line, 22. Cathrineholm ‘Lotus’ salt & pepper pots, 23. Collection of ‘cosy coaster’ mug cosies, 24. Vintage Cathrineholm enamel kettle, 25. Vintage hand crocheted bedspread, 26. vintage original silk screen print, 27. This weekend’s haul, 28. vintage pottery plate, 29. Glass Menagerie, 30. hand knitted ‘cosy coaster’, 31. Recent finds, 32. Vintage kitchen utensils, 33. Our vintage garden lounger, 34. Vintage Denby Pottery ‘Trees’ lidded soup bowl, 35. Collection of West German vases, 36. Picked up this week

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Poole Pottery is a vast topic with well over 100 years of production, so we’ll narrow it down a bit- concentrating on one of our favourite ranges.

The arrival of Robert Jefferson as resident designer in the late 1950s took Poole in new directions regarding shapes & glazes.

The Delphis range was one of the developments.

Working with Guy Sydenham, the gulf between studio pottery and commercial production could be bridged, resulting in this exciting, dynamic range.

Delphis was launched at an exhibition at Heal’s in 1963 and subsequently at stores throughout the UK.

Abstract designs & bright colours were the characteristic features.

The range was a great success both at home & overseas and was increasingly marketed with the emphasis on the hand painted element.

A standard range of shapes was used with individual painters responsible for the free-flowing designs. There were approximately 50 artists working on the range including names such as Andree Fontana, Beverley Mantel, Cynthia Bennett, Lynn Gregory, Ross Sommerfelt, Janet Laird, Thelma Bush and Carol Holden.

Our own particular favourite is Carol Cutler (Kellett) who worked between 1969 & 1976.

Carol Cutler’s painter’s mark

Production of Delphis continued until the late 1970s.

Other similar Poole ranges to look out for from this period are Aegean, Ionian and Atlantis.

Aegean range fish plate

To see a huge range of colour photos of all the different Poole pottery visit the Poole Pottery Collectors Club website.

There’s also a wonderful book that looks at Delphis in detail. It includes a full list of the Delphis painters and their marks. It actually covers the entire history of Poole Pottery – all the ranges & designers involved. It is simply entitled Poole Pottery by Hayward & Atterbury. It’s available from both www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com It contains lots of great, full-colour reference photographs.

Also, check out the Poole Pottery Flickr group we started up. Please feel free to join up & add any photos of your own!

We sometimes have a few pieces of Poole, including Delphis, for sale at H is for Home.

Some of you may have noticed that it’s been longer than usual between blogs. We’ve had a very busy week, including a magazine photo shoot at our house- all very exciting! More about that soon…

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This week’s blog is a small homage to a glorious colour. O just had to be for orange.

We are big fans, and judging by our popular photos on Flickr and items that always sell well on H is for Home, so are a lot of you out there.

Orange has the wonderful ability to look warm & cosy in the winter or lively & fresh in the summer.

Orange objects really catch the eye. It enables them to shout loudly in a collection of other brightly coloured pieces.

Alternatively, it’s perfect as a highlight colour within a muted decor or against natural materials.

We’ve given a few chairs the orange treatment!

We did a G is for Garden a couple of months ago having just planted out some annuals. Our French marigolds are doing well in the sunshine & showers.

Till next week! x

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We picked up this fabulous coffee set last weekend.

That made our minds up about what L should be for!

The Danish company Lundtofte produced high quality, stainless steel pieces – predominantly kitchen & dining wares, but also some decorative household objects.

They used top quality materials and manufacturing techniques – stainless steel often combined with teak and rosewood.

There are some fantastic, mid-century modern designs to be found by designers such as Tias Eckhoff, Eric Herlow and Lone Sachs.

We have a few examples of Lundtofte for sale at the moment at H is for Home- have a look!

Additional image credits
modcats.com
Vintage retro
Modernity
Yahoo Japan (kealoha)

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Probably our favourite room in the house. We love spending time in here – cooking, chatting or having a big mug of tea after a long dog walk.

We have the main wall painted a zingy tangerine. It’s bright & lively in the summer but also gives a warm cosy feel when the nights draw in. We used to have it painted a fresh apple green but this felt a bit cold in the winter, so we had to get the brushes back out.

The orange also works well with the stainless steel and various shades within the stone tiled splash-back.

The centre of the room is filled with a large, old, beech baker’s table which serves as our main seating & eating area – also a very useful extra work surface.

On the opposite wall to the work units & cooker is a stone fireplace. This would once have housed the original kitchen range.

The chimney has not gone to waste however, with the cast iron stove chuffing away on chilly nights. On the ceiling above this stove we have a slatted drying rack – perfect for hanging washing on cold, rainy days.
The graphic 1960′s street scene is by artist Ken Law… and on the stone ledge sit various vintage pottery plates including Poole and Royal Copenhagen. Mixing old & new is a recurring theme throughout our house.

We like the blend of rustic pieces such as the baker’s table, butcher’s block and spoon rack with the modern stainless steel and downlighting.

Both being former chefs, we like to fill the kitchen with practical (and preferably good looking) equipment.

Objects from the 1950s, 60s & 70s seem to fit in well, helping to tie it all together.

Vintage kitchen enamel and ceramics are a particular passion of ours – pots, pans, storage jars etc. Hornsea, Denby, Cathrineholm, Rorstrand, Figgjo Flint, Arabia, Dansk Designs, Le Creuset are just a few of the names we look for…

and then there are the cookbooks … don’t get us started on those!

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You’ve got your wine, your beer, your mineral water…

…or if you’re lucky, a bit of fizz.

You’ve got your ice to keep it cool.

Now all you need is something stylish to put it in.

Step forward ICE BUCKET!

Made from all kinds of materials including glass, wood, plastic, stainless steel & silver – with shapes & designs too numerous to mention.

Some are big enough to plunge your whole bottle in – like this fantastic, 1960s yellow Cathrineholm number…

…others hold just enough cubes to keep that G&T at the optimum temperature.

Teak & stainless steel by Viners

left to right: Lundtofte, Crayonne & Stelton

We always have a few designs in stock, so if your cubes need a good home, check out the selection at H is for Home

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Just for once we’re not going to insist that H is for Home. This week H is for Houses.

We were very pleased to take delivery of these lovely doorstop houses recently.

They’re part of the current collection of Somerset-based artist & textile designer, Sarah Nicol.

Sarah has been inspired by travels in Spain, Africa, Asia & America. This collection is influenced by a journey she took through Oregon in the Western United States.

She produces textile artworks, keepsakes and functional pieces such as these adorable doorstop houses.

Each doorstop is handmade and unique, with a quaint, folk art feel.

They come filled with sand & ready to use.

Available at H is for Home!

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The name Denby is synonymous with good quality, hard-wearing British tableware.

Potters Wheel (left) Ode (right)

It has to be admitted that there are a few fairly drab ranges, but in amongst the Pottery’s production there have been some outstanding designs.

Metal-handled tea pot in the Chevron pattern. Designed by Gill Pemberton in 1961

We love the work of Gill Pemberton, also Glyn Colledge, David Yorath and Thelma Hague. The output during the twenty year period spanning the mid 50s to the mid 70s was particularly strong.

Studio bowl by Glyn Colledge

At their best, the designs were original and exciting in terms of both decoration and shape.

Fruit bowl in the Arabesque pattern. Another hugely successful Gill Pemberton design

The hard to find Trees pattern

Other ranges to look out for are Rondo, Stone and Teak, Gypsy, Westbury, Bokhara and Kismet.

To find out more about Denby Pottery this book is highly recommended- full of information and full colour illustrations.

Denby Pottery 1809-1997: Dynasties and Designers (Amazon UK)

Denby Pottery, 1809-1997: Dynasties and Designers (Amazon US

Visit this page for a brief history of Denby Pottery

Denby Pottery items available at H is for Home

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