Tag: pottery

Designer Desire: Ed Drahanchuk

Montage of Ed Drahanchuk ceramic designs

Ed Drahanchuk (b.1938) is a Canadian ceramic artist who has been creating pieces in his own studio in the tiny hamlet of Bragg Creek since the early 1960s. Born in Calgary, he attended Alberta College of Art and currently resides on Quadra Island.

He has been given a number of public and private, large-scale ceramic mural commissions. They include Rhythm One (1970) at the University of Calgary; Alberta Foothills Morning (1970) for the Municipal District of Rocky View (shown at the top of the montage, above); Fossil Theme (1973) at the University of Calgary; United News Building, Calgary; Hudson Bay Oil & Gas, Calgary and Mercantile Bank of Canada in Edmonton.

Drahanchuk was the recipient of the Canadian Design of Merit Citation, Craft Award given by the National Design Council in 1974.

During the 1980s, Ed Drahanchuk switched from pottery to painting; however, he has recently recommenced working with clay.

Find examples of his (small) works for sale on Etsy and eBay.

Portrait of Ed Drahanchukcredit

Additional image credits:
Avenue Calgary | Collectors Weekly | Everyday Tourist

Designer Desire: Colin Haxby

Montage of Colin Haxby ceramic designs

Born in 1922, Colin Haxby was a British potter and ceramic designer who produced wares under his own name and for other companies.

An early design of his is Thistledown on Vogue which he did for Simpsons Potteries Ltd, Cobridge in 1955. The following year, he created the Central Park range for T G Green.

In 1966, he co-founded the company, Wallace and Haxby Limited with fellow designer, Robin Wallace (who designed Blue Pansy for T G Green). The same year, the stunning numeral and ABC mugs were created (both shown above).

In 1982, the company became Haxby Ceramics. The organisation was located in a former school in Metfield, a small village in Suffolk on the border with Norfolk. He remained a director of the company until 1999.

Over his career, he had collaborations with many other artists and potteries. In 1958, he worked with Wedgwood on a porcelain teapot in the Whirls pattern. He teamed up with Terry Frost in 1978 on a colourful, limited edition series of chargers and jug (some shown above). There was a mug designed (probably in the 1970s) by David Gentleman for the David Mellor shop in James Street Covent Garden and produced by Haxby Ceramics. He designed the Haxby honey pot for Habitat in the 1980s. He produced a cylindrical vase decorate with a Beachy Head design by Jeffrey Camp for the Royal Academy of Arts.

In 1969, he designed & produced commemorativeware for the investiture of the Prince of Wales and again in 1981 for the royal wedding of Charles & Diana.

The names of some of his designs include Blumen, Bracken, Cymbal, and, two of my favourites of his, Avena (bottom-left of the montage, above) and Grille which have bone china bodies with gold gilt decoration.

You can often find examples of his work to buy on Etsy and eBay.

Image credits:
20th Century Forum | Twistberry | VADS

Designer Desire: Jack Dadd

Montage of Jack Dadd ceramic designs

We’ve been buying & selling vintage pottery for at least a decade and a half; however, we never stop learning new things. It was only this week that we discovered that some of the vintage Hornsea Pottery mugs we’d previously attributed to John Clappison were actually the work of Jack Dadd.

Dadd was responsible for Hornsea’s newsprint Zoo (1975) and Zoodiac (1977) series of mugs (shown in the montage above). We have a couple of them still available for sale in our web shop.

He also created designs for Staffordshire Potteries including the lovely Zoo children’s breakfast set (top of montage).

I was going to write a couple of paragraphs about his background, but I’ve found the following extract taken from Dynamic Design: The British Pottery Industry 1940-1990 by Kathy Niblett.

Portrait of Jack Daddcredit

Additional image credits

Designer Desire: Mary & Godfrey Newcomb

Selection of studio pottery by Mary & Godfrey Newcomb of Needham Pottery

We’re great fans of slipware and have a few antique and contemporary pieces in our personal collection. One of my favourites is a charger with the inscription, “Comfort me with apples”. We eventually tracked down the maker – Alan Frewin – however, while researching it, we found another example with the same inscription; this time, by Needham Pottery.

Mary Newcomb (1922-2008) established Needham Pottery in 1958. Her husband, Godfrey (1921-2003) took over the running of the studio a couple of years later when Mary began concentrating more on her painting and drawing.

The studio was founded in the village of Needham, Norfolk. However, it moved with them to their subsequent residences including in Suffolk and East Anglia.

We couldn’t find that many example of their work. Many of the ones illustrated here are taken from Needham Pottery: The Ceramics of Mary and Godfrey Newcomb written by Jamie Gilham with a foreword by Tessa Newcomb. The book was published in April 2021.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Mary Newcomb (1922–2008) (@marynewcomb.archive)

Additional image credits:
Halesworth Museum | Rylett Press | Those Hidden Gems