Briglin Pottery dog

Sorry. It's been quite a while since I did a blogpost so here's a cute little dog to look at while I dig out some more Potshots goodies.

The dog is by Briglin Pottery, remember this: Briglin Pottery

I like the texture of the carved hair and the way that those hollow eyes give him (or her) a comical blank expression.

Schmider Tigris cat vase

Dating from the 1950s and 1960s, these striking black and yellow pots are easy to spot. The shiny glaze and the painted wavy yellow lines on the black background make them unmissable.

The range is Tigris, designed by Anneliese Beckh for West German pottery manufacturer, Schmider.

The shapes and colour combinations are so typical of the 1950s, remember Elegance by Hornsea Pottery, England from the same era: Hornsea elegance

I like the stylish, simplified shape of the cat vase.

Barovier & Toso Murano glass. Gold and silver to Italy

If there were Olympic medals for glitzy glass, Italy would win gold and silver with these flashy glass creations.

These eye-catching glass forms are by Italian makers, Barovier and Toso. And when it comes to making glass, they've been at it a good while: Barovier founded in 1295.

The large vase in the top picture is a wonderful deep red colour and has gold leaf crackle inclusions. The smaller bowl again is in red but this example has silver inclusions. I have an idea they date from the 1950s. I particularly like the flowing lines and wavy edges.

Barovier and Toso are still going strong today and have a smart website here: Barovier & Toso

Hornsea Impact vases 1964 1965. Part two.

It was almost a year ago when I did a blogpost on Hornsea Impact vases.

Remember this: Hornsea Impact vases

The vases shown back in April 2011 were all based on a square shaped body. At the time, I promised to show the other versions from the range – the round shaped bodies. Well, sorry for the wait but here they are.

The vases are from 1964 and 1965 and have a raised graphic decoration and coloured narrow fluting. I hope you agree that it was worth the wait.

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...

Phono Boy. Fantastic plastic by Mario Bellini.

How cool is that? Imagine walking round in 1968 with your favourite poptastic hit record playing on this little beauty.

This is the Grundig Phono Boy portable record player, designed by Mario Bellini in 1968. Love the shape, love the colour. The player is designed to play a 7 inch 45RPM vinyl record which slots neatly in at the top – so I suppose you could say this is the 1960s version of the iPod.

I've seen pictures of the Phono Boy in bright green and bright red, and also in White. And, to me, the Phono Boy certainly qualifies as a fine example of fantastic plastic.

There's a good source of technical information on the Phono Boy here: John's Radio Web