Devon Art Pottery

Over the past year some new research has been carried out on one area of RAMM’s ceramic collection: the pottery made in local Devon workshops in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries. This popular ‘Art Pottery’ was produced in Torbay, Newton Abbot, Bovey Tracey and Exeter. RAMM has a great range of pots, tableware and vases which were made for the Victorian and Edwardian market.

Vase

The decoration on this vase uses a light blue slip painted in a foliate pattern on top of a cream ground. It is believed to have been enjoyed by the future Queen Alexandra at the end of the 1880’s and was known as the ‘Sandringham’ pattern. This object is not on display.

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Terracotta Tobacco Pipe

From 1871 the Watcombe Terracotta Clay Company in Torquay began to produce a wide range of pottery using their characteristic red clay. The designs were often based on classical shapes and themes. However they also produced everyday items, such as this pipe, which dates from about 1880.

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Jug

Edmund Elton was an English Art Potter who succeeded to a Baronetcy and inherited Clevedon Court in Somerset where, from 1879, with the help of G. Masters, he made earthenware vessels from local clay. The pottery was known as the Sunflower Pottery.

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Long-necked vase

This vase was made in 1887 by Charles H Brannam and decorated by William L Baron. They worked at the Litchdon Pottery in Barnstaple, North Devon. The Litchdon Pottery was established by Charles’ father, Thomas, in 1847. Charles was born in 1855 and worked at the pottery from the age of 12.

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In particular we have a large collection which was donated in the 1970’s by an enthusiastic Exeter collector, Mr. Ernest Milverton. ‘Ernie’ began collecting in the 1960’s. He came into RAMM to tell us the stories behind his collection of pottery. He had spent years carefully choosing examples of ware from the Watcome, Longpark and Lemon and Crute potteries in Torbay; the Aller Vale Pottery near Newton Abbot and from Hart and Moist, the lesser known Exeter Art Pottery in Exeter.

Some key pieces from these workshops were shown in the ‘Visitor’s Choice’ display windows at RAMM early in 2017. Other pieces from Milverton’s collection can be seen in the permanent display cases. But as the collection runs to 280 items most of these are in the Collection Study Centre. We can show you these by appointment.

Other examples of RAMM’s Victorian Art Pottery are also on view at Knightshayes Court, near Tiverton, in the drawing room and library. On their dressers and mantlepieces you can see vases made by the Brannam Pottery of North Devon; by Hart and Moist; Royal Doulton; Longpark Pottery; and ceramics from the Sunflower Pottery in Clevedon, Somerset, known as Eltonware.

If anyone is interested in researching these collections further they would be most welcome. Please contact Sally Ayres, Assistant Curator for Decorative Arts at RAMM.