Graduating in 1954, Robert Jefferson attended the Royal College of Art in London and became a ceramics lecturer at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art.
In 1958, Jefferson joined pottery manufacturers Carter & Company as a designer rather than a ‘thrower’. He was instrumental in the creation of the more artistic ‘Studio’ side of things.
The following year, he created the Pebble range of dinner service. The pattern was machine stamped in both a black and grey colourway (both shown in the montage above).
In 1961/62, he designed the Lucullus ovenware range. It included pieces decorated with motifs of eggs, vegetables, mushrooms, a cockerel and seafood on a background the teal colour of the Blue Moon series. His similar Herb Garden range was printed on to a lemon yellow glazed background.
At around the same time, he designed a range of decorative wall plaques in the shape of birds, fish and, strangely, daggers (all shown in the montage above). These all remain highly sought after to this day.
In 1963, Carter & Company rebranded and became Poole Pottery.
In 1964, he designed the Helios lamp bases. They were produced in many colourways including blue, brown, olive, wine and cream. In the same year, he also designed the hand-painted Bokhara tableware series, which included many shapes of lidded preserve pot.
He created the Compact range in 1965 which consisted of stackable, ribbed tea and coffee service pieces. The Compact shape was glazed in Azure (blue), Broadstone (speckled cream with dark brown edging), Chestnut (reddish brown), Choisya (olive green), Lakestone (speckled with light brown edging) and Parkstone (speckled grey with dark brown edging).
Towards the end of 1965, Jefferson left Poole Pottery. The book, Robert Jefferson: The Quiet Virtuoso is available from Abe Books and Amazon. Vintage examples of his work are always available for sale on eBay and Etsy.
