Vintage Quality Street sweet tin. Happy retro Christmas.

In summer, I visited a local second-hand sale. After an hour searching through all the stalls, the only thing I bought was an old tin filled with buttons. The buttons cost just £1.00 but it was the tin that had caught my eye. Now December is here, I thought it would be good time to show it on the blogsite.

The tin is an old sweet tin, most likely from the 1950s or early 1960s. Produced for Mackintosh's Quality Street (still going strong today), the tin is decorated with some excellent vintage graphics. The colour combinations are perhaps not the most obvious, mid-blue, pale-yellow, pink and black but they somehow work together and they certainly evoke the era. A nice detail is the row of Christmas trees round the rim of the lid – remove the lid and another layer is revealed.

A nice tin. Sweet and quality, you could say.

Denby Arabesque. A lasting impression of the 1960s

Without doubt, Denby pottery is made to last. And if these items are anything to go by, it certainly does.

This is a range of tableware called Arabesque. Designed by Jill Pemberton for Denby in the 1960s, the items are so well-made in a hard Denby stoneware that they seem to be virtually indestructible. Even after so long, they don't look to have any real signs of wear or use. In a way, the design too has withstood the test of time. Even though the shape and surface painting is very much in the style of the '60s, they somehow retain their appeal and freshness today.

As I have quite a few examples of Arabesque in the Potshots collection now, I have recently passed a few bits on for others to enjoy by way of Ebay.

Carn pottery. Growing up fast.

Troika pottery, from Cornwall, has had a spectacular rise to fame over the last decade or so. It's grown to become one of the most collectable, sought-after ranges of UK studio pottery. I must admit, I'm a big fan myself – as you can see here Troika on Potshots and here more Troika.

But Troika has a sort of little brother. Not really a poor relation, and not a poor man's Troika by any means. Carn pottery, also from Cornwall (Penzance), is growing up fast. It's not surprising that Carn pottery is becoming increasingly popular. there are some very nice items in the range.

Subdued colour schemes, textured surfaces and panels of abstract design all combine to give a sense that these attractive studio pots have a real hand-made, hand-crafted quality.

As Carn pottery is still quite reasonably priced, it may be a good time to pick up a couple of carefully chosen pieces. Who knows, one day it may enjoy some of the fame that Troika has had.

The vase shown here probably dates from the early 1970s.

Scheurich West Germany Fat Lava vase passes the test

When it comes to the West German pottery known as Fat Lava, there's such a huge range of design styles and colour schemes, it's difficult to know where to start. If you tried to collect everything you found with West Germany on the base, you'd soon run out of space to keep it all.

For that reason, I've tried to limit the numbers of Fat Lava items in the Potshots collection. I decided to pick up only the pieces that really appealed to me – to restrict myself to items that are particularly pleasing on the eye.

This tall blue vase I found recently, certainly passed the test. I like the tall, narrow shape with the flared neck. The strands of thick orange 'lava' glaze have a texture almost like orange peel and they contrast perfectly with the deep blue and cool grey of the background.

The vase is marked W GERMANY 520 22 on the base. I think this is the mark for Scheurich, West Germany. I would say the vase is from the 1960s.

You can find lots more 'lava' on this excellent blog: Blurat blog

Aviemore Pottery. One to watch for the future, perhaps.

These vintage vases are by Aviemore Pottery, Scotland.

And, I'm sorry to say, that's just about all I know about them. I don't know who designed, made or decorated them. I'm not even sure when they were made but would guess they are from the late 1970s. So perhaps this is a fairly useless blog-post.

Well maybe. But I did want to show these pots because they do have some style about them. For a start, they have elegant shapes (I like the very narrow necks – even though this makes them impractical for holding flowers), the glazes are silky semi-matt in subtle colour shades, and the abstract resist patterns add the feeling that they were individually hand-crafted.

There's one other interesting thing about Aviemore Pottery like this – at the moment, it seems to be a very good value buy. You can pick up a small bottle vase on Ebay for less than £5.00. A large vase, like the one in the top picture, would cost around £18.00.

One to watch for the future, perhaps.

If you do know anything about Aviemore Pottery, I would be keen to fill-in some of the blanks.

A colourful diversion via the 1960s

Whilst scouring the car boot sales in search of interesting pots for the Potshot collection, I sometimes get a little distracted. I know I should be focusing on my quest for pearls of pottery perfection but occasionally I can't help taking the odd diversion.

Here's one example. I couldn't resist this set of brilliant table place mats. The colours are superb and the stylised flower-power decoration is so funky.  The mats feel as if they're printed on tin and they are cork-backed. I don't know who made them but they are marked Made in England. I imagine they are probably 1960s or early 1970s.

OK, they're not pots but you must agree that for great design, great graphics and great colours we're allowed the odd diversion.

Retro Denby Langley vases. Is this the hand of Glyn Colledge?

Charity shops, car boot sales and flea markets are great places to find some excellent retro pottery from the 1960s and 1970s. This is a range of pottery that caught my eye a couple of years back and I've been picking it up here and there ever since. The main reason is that I like it.

At this point, I would normally go on to tell you what I've found out about this pottery. On this occasion, I must confess that I don't know a lot about these vases.

I do know they are by Langley Pottery, which was, at the time I think they were made, owned by Denby Pottery. I would guess they were made at the end of the 1960s or the beginning of the 1970s. I also know that Glyn Colledge was busy producing some wonderful work for Denby and Langley around this time. I wondered if this could be a range designed and/or painted by him. Unfortunately, I haven't got a range name either so researching these pots has been unproductive, so far.

The vases are quite heavy, the glaze is silky matt, and the abstract, hand painted decoration in dark greens and oranges looks really stylish. 

If anyone does know any more about this range, I'm always grateful for info.

A bit more here on Glyn Colledge 
 

PS (20th April) Contacted the Langley Pottery Collectors Society (thanks cowcups) and got this reply (thanks Jenifer) "Your vases are from the Sycamore range of vases and bowls. It was designed by Glyn Colledge and was in production at the Langley Mill Pottery from 1963 – 1965"

Ah, the power of the internet.

 

Lucullus, designed by Robert Jefferson for Poole Pottery.

This Poole Pottery range of vintage oven-to table ware is Lucullus.

I've found that it's still possible to pick up items from this range without having to shell out a fortune. And, in my view, it's worth looking out for.

Lucullus was designed by Robert Jefferson and launched by Poole in 1962. The colourful illustrations look very stylish – in a way they remind me of some of the designs produced in Norway and Denmark around the same time.

To be strictly accurate, the small dish shown in the pictures with a yellow underside is not a Lucullus item at all, it's from a range called Herb Garden, again designed by Robert Jefferson and first produced in 1963.

It's amazing how fresh and contemporary Lucullus looks today despite it now being almost 50 years old.

Muramic retro style from the 1970s. Pin dishes for pin money

There's a Catherine wheel of colour on these pin dishes from the 1970s. Each one decorated with a touch of individual style. And best of all, you don't have to spend a fortune to pick one up for yourself.

As of writing this post, Hornsea Muramic pin dishes like these sell on Ebay for between £3.00 and £6.00, plus shipping.

That seems good value to me. Especially when you consider how they were made. The dishes were decorated by hand-applying concentric rings of different coloured liquid slip to the dishes on a turntable, then a stiff bristle was trailed across the rings to create the spiky effects.

The dishes were made from 1977 to 1980. There are smart dark brown bodied dishes. And, my favourites, these cream matt bodied dishes. They come in three diameter sizes, 3 and a half inch (approximately 9cm), 5 inch (approximately 12.5cm), and 6 inch (approximately 15cm). There are three or four colour schemes in each size.

Put two or three dishes together and they can look really good.