Hornsea Aphrodite

We picked up this gorgeous piece of Hornsea Pottery this week.

Aphrodite is her name and she was created by the amazing designer, John Clappison. It’s cast earthenware with a matt glaze. We love the pure, simple form of the vase – combined with the more intricate, stylised girl. The soft creamy white colour is lovely, too – and the way the relief decoration catches light or casts shadows.

It stands alone as a sculptural vase – or would also be perfect to display a small spray of pretty flowers.

It was originally produced by Hornsea in 1961 and came in 3 sizes. This one stands 10cm tall. The V&A museum actually have one in their collection and online archive. If you’d like your own example, this beautiful girl will appear in our web shop soon.

Designer Desire: Pati

Last week, we introduced you to the work of US illustrator, Pati. We have a couple of his (or her) vintage framed prints for sale.

As you can guess, even though we found many, many examples of their artwork, we couldn’t find ANYTHING about the artist. Hence the reason that we don’t even know if Pati is a man or a woman, so no artist’s portrait this week!

Their work was distributed by Soovia Janis Inc. in the 1960s and 70s, along with a couple of other artists doing similar illustrations; Margot Johnson and Jacque. Perhaps we’ll feature them some time in the future.

They include food and cocktail recipes, star signs and the like… all in a colourful, folksy, quirky style.

Recipes in the frame

We’ve got three of these original 1960s recipe artworks heading for the web shop this week. Aren’t they fabulous?

Each one has a recipe for a cocktail or dessert incorporated into a wonderful hand-decorated art illustration.

They’re the work of ‘Pati’ who produced them for Soovia Janis Inc of New York. They’re just three of a very large series of works. You’d do very well to track them all down. If you’re a complete-ist who can’t stand not having an entire set of something, tread carefully before you embark on collecting these… it might be a life-long quest!

It might be worth it though as they’re so gorgeous. Imagine a wall full of these – what a riot of colour and swirls. Most people will make do with a smaller collection – or a single picture for that perfect spot in the kitchen, bar or dining area. Your choice might come down to which colour design suited your existing décor… or a favourite cocktail maybe. In fact, a whole row of cocktail recipes along a bar would look great… no stop, now we’re mentally making a collection. They’re supposed to be for sale. We haven’t got a bar anyway!

Each has their original painted wooden frames and labels to reverse – and measure 42cm x 22cm. They’ll be listed in the web shop soon. However, if you want first dibs as a reader of our blog, just send us a message. They’re £55 each or £140 for the three.

Designer Desire: Althea McNish

_{(from top, left to right: Painted Dessert in 2 colourways, Tomee, Van Gogh in 2 colourways, Rubra in 2 colourways, Golden Harvesamazot in 2 colourways, Tropique, Pomegranate, Gilia, Bousada, Tepeaca, Unknown, Hibiscus, Trinidad, Magi, Caribe, Oriana)}

Shame on me! I have only recently been introduced to the work of Althea McNish by Liz Evans of Retro Pattern. I really should know of McNish, she originally came from Trinidad.

Althea McNish (1933-2020) began designing fashion and furnishing textiles in the 1950s. She designed 8 patterns for Hull Traders, a manufacturer who were based not far from us, just over the border in Colne, Lancashire – Golden Harvest, Painted Desert, Van Gogh (all 1959), Oriana, Pomegranate (both 1960), Gilia, Rubra (both 1961) and Magi (1964). At this firm, she worked alongside the likes of Shirley Craven, John Drummond, Ivon Hitchens and Eduardo Paolozzi.

She was also commissioned to produce designs for the likes of:

Liberty & Co – Bousada, Cebollas, Hibiscus (all 1958), Grenada, Tepeaca (1960)
Heal’s – Caribe
Ascher Ltd – Tropique (1957)
Cavendish Textiles – Lumière (1961)
Dior
Balenciaga

In 1959, she designed two murals entitled Pineapples and Pomegranates and Rayflower for the tourist class restaurant aboard the P&O Orient cruise liner, Oriana. She also produced a mural in the 1980s for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Nordic Empress and MS Monarch.

A number of museums hold her designs in their permanent collections including the V&A, National Museums Scotland, Cooper Hewitt and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

There’s a lovely documentary entitled, Whoever Heard of a Black Artist? Britain’s Hidden Art History currently on the BBC iPlayer (there’s just over a week left to view it!) in which she’s been interviewed. I can’t recommend it highly enough! McNish is one of 21 designers profiled in Libby Sellers’ new book, Women Design.

Examples of her designs come up for sale from time to time. Your first port of call should be Retro Pattern; contact them via their Instragram account. In addition, have a search on Etsy.

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I have always seen myself as a citizen of the world, drawing inspiration from the flora and fauna of every country and the art and artefacts of all cultures.

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Additional image credits:

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: 1960s

Hornsea Aphrodite

Designer Desire: Pati

Recipes in the frame

Designer Desire: Althea McNish