Ceramics

This is a novelty ceramic scent bottle in the shape of a mermaid. Ceramic scent bottles like this were popular throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. They came in many shapes and styles from animals and figures through to those with ornately painted decoration. All the major ceramic manufactures, such as Chelsea, Wedgewood and Royal Worcester, made perfume bottles with many types of hand-painted decoration on them. During the Victorian period there was a fascination with novelties in the shape of other items and many scent bottles like this one were produced.

In 1927 Newport Factory in Staffordshire gave a young employee called Clarice Cliff a range of faulty blank ceramics to try to decorate for sale. Cliff chose an unusual bold and geometric pattern to cover flaws in the pots. To the company’s surprise, Cliff’s designs were instant bestsellers she became one of the most famous names in British ceramics. Cliff went onto design her own pottery shapes – including the ‘Stamford’ shape teapot seen here.  You’ll find this tea set by Cliff alongside a range of factory produced ceramics – including the ‘Homemaker’ design by Enid Seed for Ridgway Potteries.

Bernard Leach was a British studio potter who strongly disliked factory-made ceramics. He felt that potters should dig their own clay, make their own glazes and throw their own pots. This charger was fired in Leach’s experimental Japanese-style, wood-fired kiln in St. Ives but it was damaged, splitting into 3 pieces. It was later repaired by the Leach family. The Harris has other examples British studio pottery by makers such as Michael Cardew and Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie.

Born in Kashmir in Pakistan, Cassell grew up in the North West and studied at UCLan in Preston. Cassell’s ceramics combine solid forms with highly complex, carved surface patterns. Cassell’s influences include Islamic architecture, North African surface pattern and Op Art. She increasingly works as a sculptor across many different materials including ceramics, bronze and marble. This is one of a growing collection of contemporary ceramics that you’ll find at the Harris.

This ceramic can be displayed from any angle: it doesn’t have a front, back, top or bottom. It is made by melting two slip-cast porcelain rectangles together in the kiln. The intensity of heat warps the rectangles into these two interlocking shapes. This ceramic is part of the Harris’s ongoing collection of contemporary ceramic practice.

This vase was designed by the artist Mark V. Marshall for the Lambeth-based firm Doulton. This company started out making ceramic sanitary ware but from the 1870s it employed artists to produce a range of quirkier, more expensive items. You’ll find examples of Art Pottery in the Harris collection ranging from pieces decorated by Hannah and Florence Barlow for Doulton, and designs by Walter Crane and Jessie Jones for Pilkington’s.

This colourful bird figure is one of a number of ornamental figurines in the Harris collection – many of which were made in Staffordshire. This example is beautifully modelled and painted and must have been expensive to buy. Others Staffordshire figures are much simpler – made by pressing a sheet of damp clay into a simple mould. The Potteries were notorious in the 1800s for employing child workers to make simple Staffordshire figures. There is huge variety in the quality and subject matter of this type of ceramic – which can range from biblical and mythological characters, to romantic shepherds and even famous murderers of the day.

Josiah Wedgwood is one of the most famous names in ceramics. The secret of Wedgwood’s success was a combination of pottery skill and business flair. Rather than competing with other British potters who were trying to crack the secret of making porcelain, Wedgwood concentrated on perfecting earthenware and stoneware. At the Harris you will find examples of the company’s creamware, jasperware and basaltware – including a chess set originally modelled by John Flaxman and an anti-slavery medallion which Wedgwood produced from 1787.

This porcelain tea set was made in China around 1760, but painted in Britain. Porcelain is known as ‘china’ because for centuries this was the only place which could find the right sort of clay to make this type of ceramic. It was a highly prized because of its whiteness, translucency and strength. The same ships which brought Chinese porcelain to this country also brought other new exotic products such as tea. You will find Chinese export porcelains in the Harris collection alongside early British porcelains by manufactories such as Bow, Chelsea, Worcester and Liverpool.