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From tallest to shortest; shape number 84 hand thrown and carved vase 23.5 cm tall, painted by Anne Godfrey 1965-70; shape number 83 hand thrown and carved vase 15 cm tall, painted by Christine Tate 1966-70; and shape number 92 hand thrown and carved bowl 10.5 cm tall, painted by Christine Tate 1966-70. During this period Christine was the Delphis section supervisor
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From largest to smallest; shape number 80 hand thrown and carved planter 21.5 cm tall, painted by Christine Tate 1966-70; shape number79 hand thrown planter 13.5cm tall, painted by Jean Millership1966-69; and shape number78 hand thrown planter 11cm tall, painted by Jean Millership1966-69.
Some of these vases and bowls were deliberately thrown thickly (according to Guy Sydenham by some of the less experienced throwers in the craft section), and once the clay was in a "leather hard" state, the sides were decorated by carving.
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Carved Delphis Bowls - Various Sizes From the biggest to smallest; shape number 89, 28cm diameter, Pamela Bevans 1970; shape number 88, 21cm diameter, Patricia wells 1967; shape number 87, 16cm diameter, unsigned; shape number 86, 13cm diameter, Angela Wyburgh 1968,: and the smallest has no shape number, 11cm diameter, Patrica Churchouse 1966.
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From the top clockwise; large footed Delphis bowl, no shape number, 18cm in diameter, Painted by Pamela Bevans in 1970; footed Delphis bowl, shape number 38, 12cm in diameter, painted by Christine Tate between 1964 and 1970; Poole Studio bowl, (no shape number) 2.5cm in diameter painted by Patricia Churchouse between 1964 and 1966; small Delphis bowl, no shape number,13cm diameter painted by Margaret Anderson in 1966 or 1967. The Delphis glazes were standardised in 1971, to more or less four colours (red, orange yellow, green) with an occasional blue. Delphis was selling faster than it could be made there was also a problem with wastage. The "Blythe" glazes used were very expensive and would sometimes blacken in firing, and at its worse this could obliterate the design completely, the resultant pottery being smashed. Janet Laird's career at Poole spanned this period. Joining the pottery in 1969 she was Delphis supervisor from 1970 until 1974. She told me, "when the Poole Pottery glazes started to really turn black, it was probably due to the volume put on a Top Hat kiln. When you have a large collection of red glaze & copper oxides it turns the other glazes black, apart from yellow. When Delphis started to go into production that was the problem, so the glazes had to be changed". The pots above above predate this change. These are decorated in the red, orange and yellow cadmium selenium glazes that first characterized Delphis ware, alongside other colours, that as a whole appear to have been more reactive/unpredictable in firing. This, of course lead to their discontinuation, but also demonstrates how their unpredictability can produce a quite magical happenstance. (For example, some will bubble during firing giving an "orange peel" effect while, depending on the conditions within the kiln, both the transparent "cobalt like" blue and the aqua green glazes oxidize to black, just enough, at the edges, or in places completely!) Again from Janet, "We loved the mixture of glazes that we used ,so many colours & lots of really lovely work was produced. There was some beautiful work produced also with the "Ferro Glazes" especially the 16 inch chargers when more time was spent on them. If you put lots of layers on you get the broken effect with the red breaking through." Many, though not all, of the pots below date after 1971and are decorated with the later Ferro glazes.
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Back row from left to right; shape number 15, Rocket vase 23.5cm tall, painted by Valerie Pullen 1974-75; shape number 15, Rocket vase 23.5cm tall, painted by Ros Sommerfelt 1970-71&76; shape number 84, Dumbbell vase 23cm tall, painted by Judy Evens 1974-76. Front row; shape number 32, Onion vase 12.5cm tall, painted by Cynthia Bennett 1971-77; shape number 83, hand thrown vase 15cm tall, painted by Lynn Gregory 1970-74: and shape number 83, hand thrown vase 15cm tall, painted by Carol Cutler 1969-76. Click on a vase to enlarge view
Back left, footed bowl shape number 76 painted by Julia Wills in 1971 or 72. Right, shape number 57, 27cm diameter, painted by Anne Godfrey between 1968 and 1970. Front left, shape number 56, painted by Mary Albon between 1970 and 1972. Click on a vase to enlarge view
Back left, large planter, shape number 74, 13cm tall, painted by Mary Albon between 1970 and 1972; right medium size planter, shape number 73, 11cm tall, painted by Wendy Smith between 1976 and 1977. Front left, small planter, shape number 72, 8.5cm tall, painted by Wendy Smith between 1976 and 1977; right, straight sided bowl, shape number 94, 6.5cm tall, painted by Jacqueline Mackenzie between 1972 and 1979.
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Dumbbell vase no. 84, 23cm tall, painted by Judy Evens 1974-76 and Spear Shaped Sweet Dish, no. 82, painted by Valerie Pullen 1974-75 The two pots above, are my best examples, of the post-1971 Ferro glazes working just well enough together. I do quite like the Jean Miro/Native North American looking design on the spear dish, and the glazes too work "OK", but the colours just sit on top of each other in pools and there's no interaction or reaction between the glazes. With the earlier Delphis glazes you can see that the glazes have fused together in the kiln and you can imagine that, when the kiln was opened, the artist might not only have felt relief at the survival of the pots but also real surprise at the magic that had gone on inside the kiln. Without this element of serendipity, to my eyes, these later pots can sometimes look a bit flat. This is particularly the case, where the orange or green grounds are used, the ones I've seen anyway, they either they "work", like the ones above, or appear to fail quite badly, the colours sliding, running, marbling on the surface, but never interacting. It's like either the kiln made no magic, and the potters got out, just what they expected - exactly what they put in, or else some sort of reverse alchemy took place - they put in gold and took out....
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