Fishley Holland studio pottery.

One day I'll get this lovely piece of studio pottery rigged up properly as a table lamp. Because, although it may not look like it, this pot was designed to be a lamp base. There's a hole at the top for the light fitting and a small one at the back for the cable.

The lamp base is hand thrown in red clay and is a fine example of Fishley Holland studio pottery. I would say the lamp base dates from the 1950s or 1960s. The base has a signature W. F. Holland, I think this is for William Fishley Holland who's pottery was at Clevedon, Somerset during this period.

The dark grey background colour is a perfect shade for the pale green raised slip decoration. The wonderful decoration is of leaves and natural forms which are highly stylised and free-flowing.

Personally, I think this pot looks really good just as it is. But when I do find a suitable fitting and a shade, I'll let you see how it looks as a lamp.

There's more on Fishley Holland here: Fishley Holland

Elsi Bourelius Jie flower girls from Sweden. Bye-bye ladies.

These stylised figures of flower girls are by Jie of Sweden. They were designed by Elsi Bourelius. There's a hole in the front of the girl for water and a sprig of flowers. I like the simplified unglazed faces and hands in brown clay, even though they have no expressions and no facial features. I would say they were made about the mid-1970s but I'm not sure of that.

Unfortunately, I have to make some room in my cupboards. And, although it was a hard decision, I have to sell these three figures. So it's a sad bye-bye to the lovely flower girls from Sweden.

Hornsea Pottery Mushroom cruets. A spot of 1950s magic.

 I saw this blog-post on Downtime: Mushrooms on Downtime 

All those wonderful mushrooms reminded me of these spotty mushroom salt and pepper sets.

Made by Hornsea Pottery in 1955 or 1956, they have white stalks, the caps are in gentle pastel colours and they have a raised white slip dot decoration. There's a hole in the bottom with a rubber stopper for filling the cruets.

Mushroom shapes seem to crop up quite regularly in 1950s kitchenalia design styles (as do cacti, apples, cheese plants, etc.). I like these mushroom cruets because they're useful, they look great, and they're good fun.

Briglin studio pottery. Mmmm chocolate and cream.

It's those distinctive colours of chocolate and cream that make these attractive pots so identifiable as Briglin Pottery. There's a wonderful hand-crafted feel about Briglin studio pottery. The robust red clay bodies, the swirls and stripes of freely applied earthy, natural colours and the simple yet elegant shapes.

The Briglin studio is unusual in that, whilst many other small studio potteries were located in the countryside of Cornwall, Devon, etc., the founders of Briglin set up their pottery right in the heart of London.

I would think the pots shown here date from around the mid 1970s. I suspect the patterns shown are fairly common and were produced in quite large numbers. But some of the more uncommon designs really are extremely good looking studio pots. And it wouldn't surprise me if Briglin soon begins to become more and more popular amongst collectors.

At the moment, Briglin pottery seems to sell for quite modest amounts but it may not stay that way for long. When you consider what happened to the price of Troika studio pottery, it may not be a bad idea to be on the look out for a tasty bit of Briglin's chocolate and cream for yourself.

For more information and some superb examples of Briglin studio pottery, there's an excellent and helpful webstite here: Briglin pottery

Stylised ceramic bull by Jema, Holland.

I have these two stylised animal figures, and I think they're both very handsome.

The top one is quite a large and powerful looking bull in hand-painted blues and greens. The surface is decorated with bands of impressed motifs. I'm not sure exactly when he was made but it is marked on the underside Jema, Holland.

The second figure is also of a bull. This one is even more stylised in shape – almost cubist in construction. He's in a smart deep blue, has a finely textured surface and a nice semi-matt glaze. I don't know much about this second bull. I suppose he could have come from Spain. Both bulls are made of earthenware and are hollow.

As part of my scaling-down process, I considered keeping only one bull but in the end could not choose which one would have to go so I decided to keep them both, for now. Although they do take up quite a bit of space, the good news is that they don't eat much.

An elegant bowl by Larholm, Norway. A mysterious recent find.

A couple of weeks ago, I found this small bowl at a local second-hand sale. It was priced at less than £1 and so I bought it. Not because it was so inexpensive but because I really liked it. The bowl is signed on the base in a hand-painted script Larholm Norway with the number 50. And to be honest, that's a name I hadn't come across before. Initial searches on Larholm pottery have not revealed much information either. So it's all a bit of a mystery really.

Even so, it's got an elegant curving shape and a delicate decoration. Fine trailed lines with blobby endings – like icing on a cake – stand off in relief against a matt black background.

I'll let you know if I find any more information. In the meantime, you'll just have to make do with the pictures.