Celtic pottery (Newlyn & Mousehole)

Dan a massive thanks for your investigative work, its taking some sinking in that Maggi will be joining the forum, was Julian the key?

Just can't wait to hear the mass of info Maggie will have, a font of knowledge!.......

Tremendous

yes Julian helped me to get in touch.
Maggi will have a look through the Celtic thread and will point out any errors including any pics of pottery that aren't Celtic or Fisher in origin but we should also ask some questions that Maggi can help us with

any suggestions?

I've a tonne of questions.
A good 'time line' of events and changes would be a real help. I also really do want to know about what I believe (as said much earlier) to be 3 distinct bird designs (at least).

There was one made as a lampbase as well, I think a horse ? but I've not seen a pic of that and my memory for the detail may not be absolutely correct.m

A "time line" would be good......And a cast of employees that worked for them through the 60's and 70's......Did the "Folk" range continue right up until the pottery closed or did the "Medallion" range take over completely at some point?

good questions I did ask about the Medaleon range and the design was a joint effort with Maggie contributing less then her new partner

Maggie was very resourceful and "The Observer" ran a story on her satchels/bags that she made.........

Brain Jasper and Alan Brough were thier main throwers I think........

At one point 14 people worked there.

Celtic_Fan wrote:

flying free wrote:To Celtic-fan - I've just realised who your queen plate reminds me of so much..... Dame Maggie Smith! it's been bugging me ever since you posted it.

?? Will have to do a search to see what you mean.

Dan - that is what I understand. Medalion was brought 'to the party' by Eve when he joined maggie.
You frequently see Newlyn pieces credited to Bill Fisher. This seems to be just to attract attention to the piece.

Good to hear a little from Ian. Somebody really does need to interview those involved and write a book - before it is too late. Last I read Bill was still alive and living in a carehome and maggie is doing something totally different (can't remember what at moment). I'm sure there would be a demand for such a book - I'd deffinately buy one.

actually it was a joint effort but Maggie didn't contribute quite as much to the design

Before Maggie joins us and confirms it. I should mention that (dispite my first thoughts) I now longer think that white 'Mousehole' Cat is made by Celtic Pottery.
It seems to be related to this Mousehole 'African' head
https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t5934p15-mousehole-pottery-african-head-goblet#48536
and another egg cup (advertised as a vase), very recently on ebay.
Possibly made by Biddy Picard - hopefully Maggie might be able to confirm.

http://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/bill-fisher

Shame there are no images of his work

Dan - I found that about a month ago. Never knew he was originally from London.

Davee - A new web site is being worked on that will contain a shed load of images of Bills artwork as well as loads of his pottery - probably never seen before. The guy doing it had hoped to have it running by now, but it's obviously taking longer than he hoped, or he's just been busy with work.
I check it regularly to see if it's up - so if no one else does, I'll link to it when I find it's gone live.
You will be amazed at what you see.

An early Mousehole Bull. Hollow underneath unlike the later ones.

I like the bird design on it's back too

A very nice example. I usually like the Mousehole hollow base ones better than the later ones (although these are also nice). They tend to have stronger more intricate markings, as well as stronger features and being a fraction larger.

Have you had this long or was it a lucky recent find ?

I'm sure most of you saw that black Bull figure, decorated on just one side, which ended on Auction this afternoon. Looks to be a second to me, I suspect the design on the other side disappeared in the kiln. Chipped base, horn glue back on and a hole in the back horn (from manufacture?) on the right side - so been through the wars.

But did anyone else notice that it had long(ish) curved front horns ?
I have never seen this on any other Celtic Bull figure, either Newlyn or Mousehole. Could this be a very early trial piece ?
Has anyone else ever seen curved horns before - or even have one with curved horns ?

I thought it was a trial but didn't want it in my pretty collection

Janet (the seller) is a member here

I have only seen one item base marked in this way,has anyone seen it on other pieces?

But the one that really has me baffled is this one.
I've rotated it every which way and can't decide if it's just 'scribble' or actually says something or even hides a sig

yes I have a mug with the same decoration,I think it's just scribble

Having recently aquired some more display cabinets, I've been gradually getting a few things out of the boxes they have been hiding in for years
I mentioned about half way down page 13, about a large 15inch vase also made as a lamp. Well here is that lamp base, with a cat to show its size.



Totally hollow, so potentially a little top heavy - will have to be careful

I've also just put on display this 16.5inch long dish.
This is another one which is only biscuit fired and not glazed (I forgot I had this one). That makes 4 un-glazed pieces I have now (and possibly a 5th on the way?)
I really do like these and wonder just how many were sold like this.

Without flash


With flash

I also have an unglazed bowl that I forgot about because I don't like it that much


but I did stop at one!

Many sellers use the general term 'folk pattern' when describing the above design but does it have a specific name? Some people call it ' whimsie pattern' but I don't understand why it would be called that

Sponged background with brush painted fish design defined using sgraffito which was then infilled with the overglaze.

The label looks to be cut out with scissors from a sheet then stuck on with slip,Maggie has scratched her monogram into that slip

A piece I'm very pleased with - and the only one I've ever seen.
An early William Fisher lidded pot, which (like much of Bills early work) looks to be hand made.

It's a little larger than the later version - shown to the right, although the later version has a taller lid, making them the same height.
Early version (excluding lid) 17.5cm tall, later version 16cm tall.




It's also thicker 5mm and heavier than the later version (at 3mm)
base 14cm diam, top 11.5cm diam




It may look like an old fashioned dustbin, but this is no trash.