Designer Desire: Alan Frewin

Montage of Alan Frewin slipware pottery items | H is for Home

We own a beautiful charger decorated with a tree and inscription, “Comfort me with apples” (in the top, left image). We never identified the potter that created it – until now. It’s in the historic style of Thomas Toft and was made by Alan Frewin.

Frewin (1935-2016) was a potter who produced slip decorated earthenware. He trained at Briglin Pottery in London in the mid-1960s following which, in 1970, he founded Millhouse Pottery in Harleston, Norfolk. Here, he produced a large quantity of plates, bowls, mugs, flagons and other vessels for the next 40 years.

After his death, the pottery business was continued by his wife, Anne and son, Paul until earlier this year (2020) when they closed down the studio. Fortunately, they’re still selling quite a few of his items on eBay.

In the 1990s, a series of educational DVDs was produced by Frewin and his son. They are sometimes available on Amazon and excerpts can be viewed on the Frewin YouTube channel.

Portrait of Alan Frewin in his Millhouse Pottery studiocredit

Additional image credits:

Etsy | Studio Pottery