More Carol Cutler. Delphis dishes for Poole Pottery.

To continue the theme of the previous blogpost, let's have a look at some more of Carol Cutler's excellent work. The large charger and the smaller dish on the left were both painted by Carol Cutler sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I think Carol was working at the Poole Pottery between 1969 and 1976.

All three are from the Poole Pottery Delphis range. The two smaller dishes measure just five inches (12.5cm) in diameter and are both stamped with their shape number – 49. I'm lucky enough to have a couple of these pocket-sized little treasures but if you want to see an amazing collection of Poole '49ers', Rob has a stunning gallery, here: Rob's 49ers

I've had these three pots in the collection for a good number of years now and I never seem to tire of the free, expressive, abstract patterns. In fact, with the passing time, they seem to be growing on me. Subtle, they're definitely not. Colourful, brave and full of energy, they certainly are.

Poole Pottery Delphis vases. Not giving up.

If you wanted to add an instant splash of colour to a modern interior, you couldn't far wrong with a piece of Poole Delphis pottery.

Poole Delphis is bold and bright and stylish. I think it's fair to say that the popularity (if measured by the going value) of Delphis has dipped a little over the last two or three years. But I, for one, am not giving up on it. I think Delphis is brave and exciting and has the ability to deliver a great big dose of artistic style to any room.

The Poole Delphis pots shown here all date from the early 1970s. The red vase was decorated by Pamela Bevans, The green pot is by Carol Cutler, and I haven't yet identified the pot on the left.

Anyway, I love them whatever has happened to their market value. With me, it must be a case of 'value is in the eye of the beholder'.

Baca vase by Nils Thorsson for Royal Copenhagen

Is it going a bit too far to describe a vase as sheer joy?

I don't think so. Not when the vase is as good looking as this.

This perfectly formed bottle vase is the work of Nils Thorsson. Made by Royal Copenhagen, Denmark in the 1960s, it's part of the Baca Fajance series.

The intricate yellow trails of linework stand out against the deep brown background and the whole pot has a lovely 'orange peel' textured surface.

The vase has been in the collection for several years now. I was lucky enough to find the vase in the early days and managed to pick it up without paying too much. And I think I can honestly say it's been a real pleasure to have this vase on display.

Carn Pottery Chimney vase, 1970s.

In October I did a blogpost on Carn Pottery, you can see it here: Carn Pottery. Growing up fast. As a follow up to that, here a couple more examples of that nicely textured pottery from Cornwall.

The top picture shows a vase known as the chimney vase. Designed by John Beusmans in the 1970s, the vase is really comprised of two boxes joined together, the tallest is open at the top to take a sprig of flowers. The vase is decorated with a wonderful, organic texture.

The second picture shows two more Carn vases, this time probably from the 1980s. Known as the box vase and the orb vase, they both have attractive abstract designs and that lovely Carn textured surface.

No wonder Carn Pottery has found so many new followers. It's so good to look at – and just asking to be picked up and touched.

Pisces fish vase Hornsea, 1961.

And last, but not least, in the mini fish series, are two extraordinary vases (or should that be works of art?) known as Pisces.

To me, this is an example of how an item of pottery, in this case a vase, can be elevated, through its design, to a level where it can justly be regarded as a work of art.

In other words, I like these vases.

This is Pisces, designed by Ron Mitchell in 1961 for Hornsea Pottery. Stylised fish are carved into, and sculpted onto, the surface of the vases, and an abstract surface pattern in earthy neutral colours provides the perfect background to the white fish shapes.

As these vases were made in very small numbers, they are now difficult to find. There were three different shapes made. As well as these two, there's a third, taller vase, an example of which is in the V&A Museum, London – you can see that one here: Hornsea Fish Vase at the V&A , and there's another example on the excellent pottery website Retroselect: Pisces at Retroselect

Graphic, sculptural and pleasing to the eye, these vases really are a pleasure to display.

Fish from Norway. With Clupea by Turi

I think the fish on these cups are Herring.

This wonderfully drawn design features simplified fish illustrations in blues and greens. They are part of a range by Figgio Flint, Norway known as Clupea and were produced in the 1960s. The design is by Turi Gramstadt Oliver. The matching saucer is a square shape which is a nice touch.

Red fish shaped dish.

So, to continue the fishy theme, here's one I caught recently.

This small fish-shaped dish is quite nicely made. I don't know a lot about it really. I suspect it could be from Italy. Perhaps it was made as a tourist gift item around the 1970s. Even so, the strong colours, fine line work and the addition of the white slip dots make it a pleasing object to look at – so into the Potshots collection it goes.

More fish coming soon.

A shoal of fishy dishes from the 1950s.

Pottery fish are a bit of a favourite of mine, and fish seem to have been a bit of a favourite at Hornsea Pottery too.

Remember this Hornsea slip fish dish and this Hornsea fish wall plaque

These fine examples are from a range made in the mid 1950s by Hornsea Pottery. They are made in the form of small, shallow dishes and they come in various sizes and colours. One nice feature of these little fishy dishes is that they all have a hole on the reverse so that are that they can be hung on a wall – a bit like pottery flying ducks, I suppose. The decoration was formed by using trails of liquid slip and dragging the spike shapes with a fine tool.

These little dishes look so good, I feel inspired to go on a fish-based blog-run. So stand by for a couple more fish themed pots over the next couple of days.