Briglin Pottery

Last updated

The Briglin Pottery was a studio pottery founded in 1948 by Brigitte Goldschmidt (later known as Brigitte Appleby) and Eileen Lewenstein in the basement of premises at 66 Baker Street, London. Its object was "to produce well designed, attractive pots that could be used in the home, and to sell them at affordable prices." [1] It produced a large quantity of domestic pottery, much of it recognisable from its dark earthenware body, muted colours, white glaze and wax resist designs. In some ways Briglin was atypical of post-war studio potteries: it made tin-glazed earthenware when most others were making stoneware, it employed staff at the time when most studio potters worked alone or with a few assistants, and its pottery and shop were in the West End of London when many potters preferred the country.

Appleby said of the pottery, “While the London location presupposes high salaries and overheads, it has the advantage of easy access to raw materials, a perpetually changing patronage as well as an unlimited choice of assistants. We employ at our studio fifteen people and make over three thousand pieces a week.” [2] One of her staff, Michael Crosby-Jones, commented, “Yes, Briglin is very commercial. This means that the pottery is a viable concern and the ten full-time employees plus half a dozen part-time employees are very pleased about this.” [2] Their staff included Donald Mills, who worked with them from 1948 to 1952, and Anthony Barson who specialised in painted decoration.

Due to a fire in 1952, the pottery moved to 22 Crawford Street where it continued until its closure in 1990. Lewenstein left the pottery in 1959 to set up her own studio. Both she and Appleby were active in forming the Craft Potters Association and served it for many years. Lewenstein co-edited its journal Ceramic Review from 1970 until 1997.

Brigitte Appleby died in April, 2000 [3] and Eileen Lewenstein in March, 2005. [4]

In 2002 Anthea Arnold published a history of the pottery. [5]

Example of Briglin's pottery are included in the collection of the University of Warwick [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pottery</span> Craft of making objects from clay

Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery, used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". End applications include tableware, decorative ware, sanitary ware, and in technology and industry such as electrical insulators and laboratory ware. In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, pottery often means only vessels, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called terracottas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delftware</span> Dutch pottery

Delftware or Delft pottery, also known as Delft Blue or as delf, is a general term now used for Dutch tin-glazed earthenware, a form of faience. Most of it is blue and white pottery, and the city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major centre of production, but the term covers wares with other colours, and made elsewhere. It is also used for similar pottery, English delftware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earthenware</span> Nonvitreous pottery

Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ceramic glaze, and such a process is used for the great majority of modern domestic earthenware. The main other important types of pottery are porcelain, bone china, and stoneware, all fired at high enough temperatures to vitrify. End applications include tableware and decorative ware such as figurines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faience</span> Tin-glazed pottery

Faience or faïence is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major advance in the history of pottery. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A kiln capable of producing temperatures exceeding 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) was required to achieve this result, the result of millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of porcelain styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese pottery and porcelain</span> Overview of Japanese pottery and porcelain

Pottery and porcelain is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Types have included earthenware, pottery, stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally long and successful history of ceramic production. Earthenwares were made as early as the Jōmon period, giving Japan one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world. Japan is further distinguished by the unusual esteem that ceramics hold within its artistic tradition, owing to the enduring popularity of the tea ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Whieldon</span>

Thomas Whieldon was an English potter who played a leading role in the development of Staffordshire pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salt glaze pottery</span> Pottery with ceramic glaze made of salt

Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a ceramic glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The glaze may be colourless or may be coloured various shades of brown, blue, or purple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maiolica</span> Renaissance-era Italian tin-glazed pottery

Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. The most renowned Italian maiolica is from the Renaissance period. These works were known as istoriato wares when depicting historical and mythical scenes. By the late 15th century, multiple locations, mainly in northern and central Italy, were producing sophisticated pieces for a luxury market in Italy and beyond. In France, maiolica developed as faience, in the Netherlands and England as delftware, and in Spain as talavera. In English, the spelling was anglicised to majolica, but the pronunciation usually preserved the vowel with an i as in kite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Studio pottery</span> Modern hand-made artistic pottery

Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware and cookware, and non-functional wares such as sculpture, with vases and bowls covering the middle ground, often being used only for display. Studio potters can be referred to as ceramic artists, ceramists, ceramicists or as an artist who uses clay as a medium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucie Rie</span> Austrian-British studio potter (1902–1995)

Dame Lucie Rie, was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter working in a time when most ceramicists were male. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unusual decorative techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mintons</span> English pottery company (1793–2005)

Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.

Dora May Billington (1890–1968) was an English teacher of pottery, a writer and a studio potter. Her own work explored the possibilities of painting on pottery.

The Craft Potters Association (CPA) is an association of potters formed in 1958 in London. It has two wholly owned operating companies: Craftsmen Potters Trading Company Ltd and Ceramic Review Publishing Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Caiger-Smith</span> British potter (1930–2020)

Alan Caiger-Smith MBE was a British ceramicist, studio potter and writer on pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tin-glazed pottery</span> Pottery covered in glaze containing tin oxide

Tin-glazed pottery is earthenware covered in lead glaze with added tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque ; usually this provides a background for brightly painted decoration. It has been important in Islamic and European pottery, but very little used in East Asia. The pottery body is usually made of red or buff-colored earthenware and the white glaze imitated Chinese porcelain. The decoration on tin-glazed pottery is usually applied to the unfired glaze surface by brush with metallic oxides, commonly cobalt oxide, copper oxide, iron oxide, manganese dioxide and antimony oxide. The makers of Italian tin-glazed pottery from the late Renaissance blended oxides to produce detailed and realistic polychrome paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art pottery</span> Pottery produced by artists emphasizing artistic rather than practical value

Art pottery is a term for pottery with artistic aspirations, made in relatively small quantities, mostly between about 1870 and 1930. Typically, sets of the usual tableware items are excluded from the term; instead the objects produced are mostly decorative vessels such as vases, jugs, bowls and the like which are sold singly. The term originated in the later 19th century, and is usually used only for pottery produced from that period onwards. It tends to be used for ceramics produced in factory conditions, but in relatively small quantities, using skilled workers, with at the least close supervision by a designer or some sort of artistic director. Studio pottery is a step up, supposed to be produced in even smaller quantities, with the hands-on participation of an artist-potter, who often performs all or most of the production stages. But the use of both terms can be elastic. Ceramic art is often a much wider term, covering all pottery that comes within the scope of art history, but "ceramic artist" is often used for hands-on artist potters in studio pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramic art</span> Decorative objects made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery

Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Moore (potter)</span>

Bernard Moore (1850–1935) was an English pottery manufacturer and ceramic chemist known for the innovative production of art pottery, especially his flambé glazes and pottery with reduced lustre pigments. After forty years running his family's pottery business, he set up his own pottery studio in Stoke-on-Trent in 1905 where he made art pottery with the help of a few assistants. After closing the studio in 1915, he worked as a ceramic consultant.

Karl Martz was an American studio potter, ceramic artist, and teacher whose work achieved national and international recognition.

Mary Borgstrom was a Canadian potter, ceramist, and artist who specialized in primitive techniques. She was presented with the "Award of Excellence" by the Canadian Guild of Crafts in Quebec.

References

  1. Studio Pottery website
  2. 1 2 "Briglin Pottery", Ceramic Review, 4, July/August 1970, p.6
  3. Emmanuel Cooper "Obituary: Brigitte Appleby", Independent, The (London), April 19, 2000
  4. Tanya Harrod, "Obituary: Eileen Lewenstein", Guardian Unlimited, March 30, 2005
  5. Arnold, A. Briglin Pottery 1948-1990: The Story of a Studio Pottery in the West End of London, Briglin Books, London, 2002. ISBN   0-9541923-0-3
  6. University of Warwick Art Collection [ permanent dead link ]