Ambleside Pottery

I really like it and it’s mostly early……and Eva Mackay did quite a bit I believe…It’s all part of the story and evolution of Cook and the pottery….I meant to add that I read a post about the “Puritans” design on this thread….that design was created by a Mr Price I cannot think of his first name….

You should at least writ your info all down - no one else knows all this.

I’m thinking of doing something

There's a video (unfortunately no sound) of George Cook at work on the new BBC rewind service. I thought people may be interested.
https://discover.bbcrewind.co.uk/asset/600582050265c00027a01935

I cant believe he stacked those four pots vertically!

Had to chuckle at the 'ConteNt' warning at the start of that. REMEMBER, WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING IS PART OF THE PAST....

Where is the book Brian? Its been nearly two months?

Strange whale(?) eating a fish design - unsigned

2 months……your a hard task master …..nice vase I have sold similar piece with that colour background but that’s a new design which is really nice….it doesn’t need a mark as it’s signed Ambleside “cook” all over it….

September then?  

For the record and if any more pop up


There is a stenciled Museum number on the base. Provenance:  The Derbyshire Museums Service, which from 1936 to about 1980 built a collection of art and other items for mobile use in schools and colleges throughout Derbyshire. The collection was curated for many years by Barbara Winstanley, and it was in the 1960s that it appears that it was adding studio pottery to its catalogue.

My newest addition and a piece I’m delighted to have…..the slipware fish are really well executed and the piece as a whole is really nice….Cook period 1948/68 but incised for Ambleside only.

I would never have recognised it if the mark was not there but it does say 50s to me. I wonder if people in the future will be able to say that there was a recognisable 'style' for the 2020s or 1990s I doubt it.

A peculiar anthropomorphic mug.

Yes, well the Puritan ones are strange but this goes a little further. Gremlins sneaking up on a Seagull? and a hedgehog?

That’s really cool…..if you’re selling let me know it can join the other 100 plus pieces of hand painted Ambleside….Hedgehogs are often added to the hand painted more “different” subjects painted by Jill…..the dragons all have one biting tails or similar….

A scarce “Cook” piece from Ambleside pottery….Even his sgraffito work is distinctive….Lustre to the brown glaze…Complete with its matching stand….Large size at just over 6” and signed only “Cook” ….

Brian is the book finished?

I have written the first couple of lines…..see if you agree…..George Frederick Cook was a pioneer of pottery in the English Lake District.Founding a pottery in the backwater of Ambleside in 1948 while the country was still under rationing was a very confident move on his part underpinning a self assured confidence in his own talents……..Something like that then a load of pics and some info on designers and monograms and some pieces some won’t have seen…..

Interesting to fit him in withing the British pottery post war movement as a whole, where does he sit? Was there not an explosion of inventive ceramics after the war, a big rejection of the past in the arts world. Who do you think were his influences?

I have no idea about his influences….i would have liked to have chatted to him about his ideas….I do know people who knew him…..but that’s not the same and is always hearsay ……so I will just leave him as the potter who lighted up the lakes in the 1950s and 1960s and left a legacy many people enjoy….now more than then I imagine….

A charming little half pint slipware mug. Just marked AMBLESIDE stamp. A steal on Etsy    

Very nice colour…….and the classic “Cook” thumb on the top of the handle…..scarce things in mint condition….

Brian - I'm assuming that these half pinters were the female equivalent of the pint ones and as Leach pottery are just not that common as they did not sell well?

Kids look at you like you are mad if you say 'back in my day' in a pub women only ever drank a half point or a short and mixer, as it was seen as 'ladylike' - Women did not drink pints in pubs.

I don’t think too many survived of what was made…..I’m sure people used them I know someone who uses theirs daily as coffee mugs…..in the sink to wash and all…..I like them I like it all really but some more than others…