Put in the shade!

collection of vintage lamps including a pair of olive green Poole Pottery cubes, one tall, teak Danish example and a lime green glass pear shaped base

We’ve bought lots of lamp bases recently and have been trying to marry them up with shades that we also pick up from time to time.

large white vintage geometric table lamp base topped with a vintage Genia Sapper "Heidi" fabric shade

We think this combination really works. We bought this original 1960s/70s white pottery base at a market last week. We already had the Genia Sapper Heidi pattern shade… and hey presto, a match made in heaven!

diptych image of vintage Danish teak lamp base with two different shades

We had a couple of options available for this vintage Scandinavian teak base. Both have natural tones in hessian type materials. Each works fine… but we’re not sure that either is the perfect shape & size.

detail from vintage Danish teak lamp base

The actual base is stunning though, with its tactile sculptural form – very Dansk Designs actually.

pair of small, olive green, cube-shaped vintage Poole Pottery lamp bases with geometric pattern decoration

We’ve just acquired two of these geometric pottery bases. They were produced by Poole Pottery in the 1960s.

detail from pair of small, olive green, cube-shaped vintage Poole Pottery lamp bases with geometric pattern decoration

The bases are the stars of the show here, so we’ll keep it simple for the shades. We’ve got some of those cylindrical off-white fibreglass shades, which are a pretty good fit… but a slate grey fabric would be perfect.

vintage pear shaped lime green glass lamp base

…and then there’s this stunning lime green glass shade – possibly by Holmgaard. This base is quite tricky – we’re not even sure what we’re looking for – but it will jump out at us one day!!!

P is for… Poole

'P is for... Poole' blog post banner
Collection of vintage Poole Delphis pottery vases and plates | H is for Home

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

The arrival of Robert Jefferson, as resident designer in the late 1950s, took Poole in new directions with regards to shapes and glazes.

Vintage Poole Pottery Delphis vase | H is for Home

The Delphis range was one of the developments.

Trio of Poole Pottery plates & dishes designed by Carol Cutler | H is for Home

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.

Poole Pottery plate designed by Carol Cutler | H is for Home

Abstract designs & bright colours were the characteristic features.

Poole Pottery 'Delphis' plate | H is for Home

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

Poole Pottery 'Delphis' pin dish | H is for Home Poole Pottery 'Delphis' dish | H is for Home

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 Andrée 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.

Poole Pottery 'Delphis' pin dish | H is for Home

Carol Cutler's painter's mark on the base of a Poole Pottery plate | H is for Home _{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.

Vintage Poole Pottery 'Aegean' plate | H is for Home _{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.

Small vintage Poole Pottery vase | H is for Home

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 to follow soon…

Something Fishy!

Whether it be the physical landscape itself or the flora & fauna contained within it, artists and designers have been influenced by nature over the centuries.

Inspiration drawn from mountains, rivers, lakes, seas, clouds, trees, birds, fish, plants, flowers are all reflected in their work.

We thought it would be fun to take these broad themes and show their influence on the creative process. For no particular reason, we’re going to start with something fishy!

_{vintage 1960s pottery plates}

We might feature stuff from any decade, but there will, no doubt, be a mid 20th century bias as we love this era and are always drawn to vintage pieces from the 50s, 60s & 70s.

_{Large 1950s green glass dish}

_{1960s art glass sculptures}

Stylised fish were a much-used design motif in this mid 20th century period – in art, design and everyday homewares.

_{Collage entitled Fish Fossil Sea Bed by Andrew Rob, 1970}

_{1960s iron trivet | Swedish serving dish (Dukat)}

_{Aquarius series fish plates by Washington Pottery}

_{John Clappison, Hornsea Pottery | Bernard Moss Pentewan Pottery}

_{Hornsea Pottery wall-mountable fish… who needs flying ducks?}

Also, the artistic treatment given in cookbooks etc can be quite magical. Two of our undoubted favourites are Bill Charmatz and Charley Harper.

_{Bill Charmatz – from the Esquire Cook Book first published in Great Britain in 1956.}

_{Charley Harper – from Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two first published in 1958.}

Finally, to show that nature can do a pretty good job herself, we picked up this fossil from a great little shop in Hastings. Preserved in green river shales, it’s 45 million years old (hopefully you won’t be waiting that long for the launch of our website!).

_{Knightia alta, Eocene period. Origin: Wyoming}

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Poole Pottery

Put in the shade!

P is for… Poole

Something Fishy!