Abstract and Biomorphic

Abstract art represents real objects as simple forms, stripped of detail. Abstract forms may be biological (organic or biomorphic) when they have asymmetric flowing curves, as in the Hayward and Hallam vases from Beswick, or look like bacteria, as in cloisonné (Denby). Voodoo by Foley has furry-looking shapes. Hornsea produced a dish with an Arp-like pattern. Colin Melbourne's CM series for Beswick included some biomorphic shaped vases and bowls.

African

African styles came into popular Western ceramics because they were already an influence in modern art, and because tourists brought home African art souvenirs from their travels. The 1950s were the heyday of African figurines. Movies such as African Queen (1951) and Zulu (1964) may also have been an influence.

Animal Print

Zebra wares were produced by Midwinter (their famous Zambesi pattern) Sadler, Beswick, Lancaster & Sandland (their zebrette range), Kelsboro Ware, Arthur Wood, Lord Nelson, Burgess and Leigh (Burleigh Ware), James Kent, Ravelli and other factories. Wade produced a 'zebra' pattern jug and bowl with black stripes on a yellow or blue ground (marked "Wade Royal Victoria Pottery") and Crown Devon produced dishes, with yellow stripes on a black ground. Other examples not shown here are T. G. Green safari (leopard print) and Myott giraffe pattern (Marked on the base in gold 'Myott Son. Co. Made in England Hand Painted G.G1455F).

Animals

See the shark ashtray and Guinness toucans from Carlton Ware, the Lomonosov USSR panda, the Meissen polar bear, the Wade fish dishes, and the many animals by Poole. Colin Melbourne's animals for Beswick are in extreme abstract 50s style.

Atomic

Typical of the fifties are stars, or electrons orbiting in atoms; science, technology and space travel merged into one theme. Stars are seen on galaxy and shooting star by Wade; orbit by Carlton Ware; starglint by Falcon Ware; starlight by Midwinter; aurora by Foley; midnight star (black ground) and morning star (sky-blue ground), both by Alfred Meakin; and starglint by Falcon Ware. The image to the left is the a model of the giant atomium of 1958 (still standing in Belgium; see Wood and Metal). Atomic styles are continued into the 1970s as Space Age (see below) and are reflected in popular culture in the form of science fiction films. The wonderful American B movies of the fifties with 'space invaders' themes are good examples of these trends.

Black (is beautiful)

All-black pieces are typical of the fifties, when black was considered elegant; and the seventies, when it was a space age or Panton colour (especially in plastics, and that horrible black leather furniture). Hornsea elegance, and Denby tigo ware, are good example of fifties black elegance. The Carlton Ware Wellington vase on the left here is Panton-style, late sixties all-black.

Plain black ceramics are not usually popular with collectors, especially traditional ceramics collectors who prefer lots of patterns, colours and fancy decoration. Furthermore, black reminds some people of funerals. In general, therefore, all-black peices often sell quite cheaply. If, like me, you love all-black retro pieces, because they looks so sleek, then black is a bargain. All-black Poole from the fifties, and all-black Midwinter, for example, often sell for far less than their patterned equivalents. And Hornsea's black ebony range of tableware from the 1980s did not sell well, and is therefore rare - and currently greatly undervalued, in my opinion.

Bright colours

Bright colours were around before the war, as in Art Deco ceramics; but solid blocks of plain, bright colour are typically retro. They don't come much brighter than the livid orange that was seen in several late sixties and early seventies Carlton Ware ranges, Italian glass and Ravelli. Bright purple was another 60s and 70s favorite, as in Gouda's flower rings. Bright, funky mixed-colours are seen in Acapulco, Goebel (left), delphis and gaylord by Myott.

Colours of retro

The riotous colours of the fifties included bright reds in the interior of vases and bowls in Beswick, Burleigh Ware and Crown Devon. These gave way to more restrained palettes in the early sixties, including sand colour in Hornsea imprest. Things went psychedelic in the late 60s (see below), then a rather unpleasant dull green and brown in the 70s.

A set marked SUMMERBANK POTTERY, STAFFORDSHIRE was introduced in 1956 and was modelled by Peter Scott (see image, left, from a trade advert of 1956; click here for larger image).

Carlton Ware imitated the flying duck craze with their Guinness flying toucans. Wade made sets of small flying swallows (sold in boxes marked 'Flying Birds'). Sets of brass flying ducks are also seen.

Freeform

Asymmetric shapes, with compound curves (i.e. curved in more than one plane). See the zebra pieces and tripod bowl by Arthur Wood; the Poole freeform shapes (listed under Poole freeforms and on many pages in Your Collections); Burleigh Ware; Beswick Ware; Piazza Ware; the Midwinter blue and yellow fancies; and the zebrette lipped vase. Freeforms gave way to straight cylinders in the early 60s. Colin Melbourne produced freeform shapes for his CM series for Beswick, and at the same time (around 1956) Wim Visser was designing beautiful freeforms for Maastricht.

Geometric

In the early 60s, and again in the 70s, repeating patterns of angular, often symmetrical elements were common. These were seen as a reaction against fifties exuberance. Examples include Hornsea imprest (see detail, left); and Midwinter's diagonal. In the 70s and 80s, ceramic shapes went geometric, as in the Fuchs designs for Hutschenreuther, or the work of van der Vaart.

Gold on Black

The luxurious effect of gold transfer prints (often Victorianesque) on black or dark brown, is a feature of the late 1960s to early 1980s. Examples include Hornsea's Zodiac mugs of 1970, their Midas range of 1981, Portmeirion's Phoenix coffee set (designed by John Cuffley, c. late 1960s) and Purbeck's playing card money box (detail, left, date unknown). Portmeirion also introduced a commemorative Apollo Landing (1969) embellished with gold on black.

As for Portmeirion, ccording to the Portmeirion website, Susan Williams-Ellis "continued to produce many attractive coffee sets during the late 1960's. 'Gold Rule', 'Coptic Brocade' and 'Aztec Brocade' are examples of abstract decorations printed in gold, platinum and copper lustre, mostly on a black background. The original designs were made by cutting out coloured foils and sticking them onto black or white paper.

'Stitch' patterns

I use this term loosely to refer to the plethora of patterns, seen on 1950s English ceramics, that resemble the crossed threads in woven fabric. Typically, there is a thick, wavy, hand-painted line in colour, and a thinner line in black or another colour. Homeweave was a pattern from 1953 designed by Jessie Tait for Midwinter. Washington Pottery came out with a similar design (c. 1955), as did Beswick, Kensington Ware, Burgess and Leigh, Empire Ware ('Harlequinade'), English Ironstone Pottery, Alfred Meakin, J & G Meakin ('Habitant' from c. 1953-55) Wood and Sons (in Ringwood Ware).

J & G Meakin;s fairway (c. 1953-54) had interrupted stitch lines. Johnson Bros. came out with a black tartan pattern on white ground. ANother black and white stitch pattern was Myott's checkers.

Household Implements

The fifties saw a craze for ceramics printed with kitchen implements, refrigerators and even garden tools. Furniture is seen on Homemaker by Ridgway, while a mixture of household items is seen in colour on Caldor ovenware by Empire. Kitchen implements are seen on Fiesta by Barker Brothers, Longline by Poutney, Barbecue by Wedgwood (in black or burgundy transfer print); and a range by Crown Devon. Garden tools decorate a range by Crown Clarence.

Kitsch, Camp and Gay

There is a fine line between kitsch and crap: for truly bad art, see the Museum of Bad Art website. Good kitsch is the same as camp: failed seriousness. Some kitsch styles try to be tasteful, elegant or artistic - but end up looking tacky, sentimental or poorly-designed. However, this means they can be great fun - and sometimes very collectible. So, the design snobs who look down their noses at kitsch may be missing the joke.

Panton Era

Loosely referring to 1970s styles, by far the best examples here are German: see the Fuchs range of Serie Archais vases for Hutschenreuther, and pieces by Rosenthal (see left) and Plankenhammer. In England, Carlton Ware made some fabulous bright orange, flanged ceramics as did Ravelli. Panton style is named after the Danish designer Verner Panton (1926 - 1998).

Pastel Colours

are any pale shade of a colour. They were popular from the 50s to early 60s and; they occasionally appear later, as in the "Image 70" range of plain mixed pastel coffee sets (late 60s or early 70s) by Empire Ware. The popularity of pastels peaked in the mid 1950s; in Holland, however, Maastricht made pastel sets from 1953 to 1969, and Mosa brought out a pastel service in 1958. Mixed pastel sets are attractive and collectable. Examples can be seen in the plastics of Midwinter and Gaydon Melmex, as well as the peanut sets by Gouda Flora and Huizen, other Dutch factories including Maastricht and Goedewaagen, the German factory Melitta, and the sets of oven dishes by Villeroy and Boch. See the Regout website for stunning Dutch pastel ceramics.

Polka dots

were around on ceramics before the war, but became adopted by modernism in the fifties. See Empire Ware (left), and J & G Meakin Studio ware. Washington Potteries produced a polka dot range of teaware with black hollow-ware and white flatware with small black spots, and Alfred Meakin made teaware with a dark ground, large white dots and a gold trim (not shown).

Psychedelic and flower-power

flower-power patterns, with chaotically-organised design elements, were a feature of the late sixties and early seventies. Examples include the gaytime range by lord Nelson Potteries (not shown), the closely-related Acapulco by Villeroy and Boch, and delphis by Poole.

Retro

What is 'retro' style? This is a tricky one because there is no single theme or influence at work in retro designs.

Rustic

The country cottage or rustic look was popular in the 1970s. I don't mean floral patterns or Laura Ashley or chintz. Seventies rustic was simple, plain and earthy, usually with brown colours. Think of Tom and Barbara's kitchen in The Good Life (BBC TV). Midwinter's hopsack range (left) is a good example, as are the coffee sets by Purbeck Pottery from the 1970s (not shown).

Shape

Pre-war daintiness, gilding and flowers gave way to organic overgrowth in the fifties, then simple cylinders in the sixties.

Space Age

The atomic styles of the fifties were in part stimulated by the Sputnik launch of 1957. An interest in science, molecules and space travel continued until the early 70s. The space age trend was epitomised by Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (Warner Bros. released the movie in 1968), and spawned a range of space age designs in brightly coloured plastics. A common motif is the sphere, resembling the space helmets of the Apollo missions. The JVS Videoshpere and Weltron 2001 space ball stereo are good examples. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969.

Stacked Disks or Ribbing

Robert Welch's Hobart candlestick reflected a trend for shapes based on stacked disks or flanges. The vase to the left is by Flora Keramiek from the 1980's. Carlton Ware made a wonderful range of flanged ceramics in the late sixties resembling electrical pylon insulators. These forms resemble the hand-turned vases of the early sixties by Dutch ceramist Jan van der Vaart, and more generally, the turned legs on wooden furniture. In glass, the motif is seen in the Sherringham candlesticks of Ronald Stennett-Wilson (1967), in Holmegaard vases, and in the elektron range designed by Hans Theo Baumann in 1965 for Gral Glas.

Traditional (Dead Granny Antiques, Brown Antiques)

Picture a rocking horse, a teddy bear and a brass microscope; or a dark brown wooden table set with a lace doyley and a Chinese vase; or a tortoise shell tea caddy containing a Beatrix Potter letter and a piece of scrimshaw. In fact, to get an idea what traditional antique styles are, just tune in every week to BBC TV's Antiques Roadshow.

Traditional British tableware typically has a 'spray and floral border' pattern, with a central depiction of flowers, encircled by a decorative border, usually scalloped and gilded. The central area may also show rustic scenes or landscapes. Blue-and-white patterns are also very traditional, especially the willow pattern or Japanese Satsuma-style patterns.

Tripod

Three-footed objects, usually freeform, were a feature of the mid-late fifties, not only in ceramics but in furniture. See also the Wade harmony bowl, and the tripod bowl by Arthur Wood (detail, left). The Beswick Ware range included some stunning 3-footed zebra-stripe bowls (shapes 1387-8), and tripod candle holders are found in the Foley range. Some Hornsea slipware bowls were 3-footed (not shown). The problem with tripods is that the feet are easily damaged.

Two-tone

Simple decoration, consisting of solid areas of two complementary colours. Exemplified by the Wade harmony range, Midwinter fancies and Poole twintone.

Victoriana

Throughout the 1960s, Portmeirion decorated many of its wares with transfer patterns derived from Eigteenth and Nineteenth century book engravings and Victorian advertising transfer prints. Many such Victorianesque tranfers are seen on British ceramics in the 1960s and early 1970s, usually with ornate, wiry, patterns. Good examples (detail, left) are seen on some Carlton Ware money boxes.

Wall Decorations

In the fifties, Scandinavian interiors became common. Plain, often white walls replaced Victorian-style interiors in which the walls were hung with densely patterned wall papers and framed pictures. Plain walls can look a bit sterile, and so a wall plaque can add decorative interest.

Wall pockets

Wall pockets were flat-backed ceramic containers for cut or dried flowers, or for living plants.

Wall plaques or masks

These showed pretty young girls or children in profile, semi profile or frontal views. Cheaper models were made out of plaster, and were painted rather than glazed and fired. Painted plaster is easily chipped and the paint rubs away in patches when it is cleaned. Wall masks were made by: Bosson, England (see the superb example by Colin Melbourne); Cortendorf and Marzi & Remy (both Germany); Ravelli, Fris and Kroon (both Holland). Cortendorf's most commonly seen wall mask is a girl in profile with black painted face and turquoise hair in a pony tail. Chalkware examples with a DURON sticker are also seen.

White relief

West German porcelain factories produced very large numbers of white vases, often matt (bisque), and with relief decoration, from the 1950s until the 1980s. These were part of a particularly German experiment with "structural" or "relief" porcelain. Fossil shapes, geological strata, seashells and geometric, ethnic or abstract patterns are just some of the decor types seen.

Hans Theo Baumann designed white relief forms for: Rosenthal (1957-59), Thomas (1963) and Arzberg ('Kyoto', 1974; and 'serie 3058', 1975). Many different factories got in on the act. On this website you can see examples by Hutschenreuther and other factories under Germany, other factories 1.