A vintage children's book with Mary Blair illustrations

This Sunday, I set my clock for an early start. Sunday is car boot sale day and I always look forward to rooting round all the stalls to see if there are any gems of pottery treasure for the Potshots collection.

This week, even though the weather was good for a change, there were no bootsale pottery bargains to be found. Normally this would be a disappointment – but not this week. Just as I was about to leave, I spotted this beautiful children's song book. It cost me £1. The book is wonderfully illustrated by Mary Blair. This edition was published by Paul Hamlyn in 1966 but the book has a copyright from 1955 to the Golden Press, inc. I would guess, therefore, that the illustrations were done sometime in the 1950s. And aren't they just superb? Here are some pictures of a few of the pages...

True 1950s style. Elegance by name, elegant by...

If ever a range of pottery typified the design style of the 1950s, to me, this would be it.

Designed in the mid 1950s by a young John Clappison for Hornsea Pottery, this is Elegance. The range was in production between 1955 and 1959. The asymmetrical shapes incorporate deep curves. The outers are decorated with clean white unglazed stripes against a glossy black background. The interiors and details are in yellow, sometimes in golden yellow, sometimes in paler lemon yellow. Shown here (middle picture) is a smart salt and pepper set with a tall tapering form, and a vase (bottom picture) which has a hole on its flat back side to allow for hanging on a wall.

There's a fine example from the Elegance range in the collection of the V&A museum, London. You can see it here: Elegance vase

If, like me, you have a fondness for mid-century design, you'll probably agree that this range could be truly described as Elegance by name, and elegant by nature.

Hornsea Pocket Wall Vase 1955. Shades of Barbara Hepworth.

One of my personal favourites.

This wonderfully shaped pot is by Hornsea Pottery. It was made in 1955 and is described by Hornsea simply as a pocket wall vase. I'm not sure exactly how it was supposed to hang on a wall, its base seems to be designed to stand flat on a surface.

The beauty of this vase, in my opinion, lies in its elegant and sculptural form. The pierced circular holes and asymmetrical shape are so reminiscent of the work of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

Even though the vase may have been originally designed to hold a spray of flowers, to me, the object is a pleasure displayed just as it is.

I suspect this vase is quite a rare one. During the time that I've been collecting Hornsea pottery, I've only ever seen one or two examples.

Barbara Hepworth

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Barbara Hepworth

Barbara Hepworth photo:
Erling Mandelmann / photo©ErlingMandelmann.ch