Twintone and Kitchenalia

The two-colour glazes which are so characteristic of Poole tableware date back to 1936. The Sepia and Mushroom combination (later coded C54) was the first to be developed by Earnest Baggaley when he joined Poole Pottery at this time. Baggaley and John Adams went on to introduce further colour combinations. A comprehensive list of these colours is available on at www.twintone.co.uk. After the World War II, the range was named Twintone and remained in production right up until 1981.

The Streamline tableware to which these glazes were originally applied was designed by John Adams and dates back to 1935. The streamline groups below are the same basic design, but were updated with a circular knob to lid by Alfred Read in 1953/54.

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Twintone colour scheme C96, Ice Green and Mushroom, egg cups and tray 1951-55

Twintone colour scheme C103, Lime Yellow and Seagull, Freeform flower troughs1955-59

Twintone colour scheme C95, Indian Red and Magnolia, Streamline teapot, milk and sugar, 1955-59.

Twintone jam pots, Shape no. 286. From left C97, Peach Bloom and Seagull; C96, Ice Green and Mushroom; C102, Lime Yellow and Moonstone Grey; C54 Sepia and Mushroom; C104, Sky Blue and Dove Grey; and C103, Lime Yellow and Seagull.

Twintone colour scheme C97, Peach Bloom and Seagull, Streamline coffee pot, hot water pot, milk, sugar, and coffee cups and saucers 1951-55.

Ice Green Toast Rack

This was the first piece of Poole Pottery I bought. I wanted a toast rack and decided to have a look for one on Ebay. What a mistake that was! But the toast rack is still in regular use and doing a fine job at keeping the toast crispy.

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	More Twintone C95. Cheese dish, biscuit barrel (missing cane handle). Streamline tea pot, coffee pot, hot milk pot, milk jug, large and small sugar bowls, tea cup and saucer and coffee cup and saucer, 1951-59 Robert Jefferson Streamline coffee set in Twintone Black Pebble (C106 Alpine White and Black Panther)1959 One of Robert Jefferson's first innovations when he joined Poole Pottery was to introduce printed patterns with Twintone Black Pebble (C106) and Grey Pebble (C105) colourways. The patterns were printed using the Murray Curvex machine and "gelatine bomb" technique. Which all sounds highly technical (and perhaps a bit messy) and I guess maybe was the reason that it was only ever used for this one design and then only in production for 2 years. Anyway it looks great and is a classic c1960's makeover of the Streamline/Twintone tableware - a bit like repainting/recovering your old Edwardian furniture Green Diamond Spice Jars, set of six lidded jars (parsley, sage, thyme, nutmeg, allspice and cloves), with cork stoppers (3" tall), designed by Robert Jefferson in 1963. These jars were decorated using a novel silkscreen transfer printing process applied in-glaze. The dark printed areas appear to sparkle, and have a green halo where the colour seeps into the white glaze. Also produced in this range were 4 larger storage jars, as well as some other colours. Below a matt blue and magnolia colour combination and I'm informed, they also came in red. Click on the images to enlarge
	Green Diamond Storage Jars, set of four jars (tea, coffee, sugar and rice), with cork stoppers (4 1/2" Tall), designed by Robert Jefferson in 1963.	Bay - Blue "Green Diamond" spice jar. Bay wasn't part of the standard Green Diamond range of six spice jars. I know that a "Curry" jar was made in this blue/magnolia glaze combination, but I don't know which other herb/spice names were available.
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	From left to right: Shape no. 375 jam pot, SOH.A pattern; shape no. 654 preserve jar, OAB pattern painted by Mary Lowman 1962-64; shape no. 659 Storage jar (smallest of 4 sizes), JC pattern; and shape no. 655 preserve jar, JB pattern in Sapphire Blue and scratched Black glazes The Bokhara range of hand thrown and decorated jars and vases was designed by Robert Jefferson in 1964. Click on the images to enlarge
	Stackable Poole Pottery Compact tableware with flat coffee pot lid designed by Robert Jefferson in 1962. Colour above is Charcoal, also came in Chestnut and Choisya (olive-green)	"oven to table ware" "Herb Garden" range designed by Robert Jefferson in 1961. Caserole above in yellow glaze and silk screen printed thyme decoration. Other shapes in the Herb Garden range were decorated with sage, bay, basil, pasley, clove , borage, caraway and mint. The similar "Lucullus" range in Blue Moon glaze, was printed with sweetcorn, eggs, prawns and scallops, peapods and leaves, peapods and cauliflowers, marrows, and mushrooms, blackberry and apple, and a cockerel.

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Slip-cast v Hand-thown

All of the pots above would have been formed by a process of slip-casting. This involves the use of plaster moulds (in two or more pieces depending on the complexity of the shape to be cast), and liquid earthenware clay called slip. The slip is poured into a mould, and the water within the slip is absorbed by the dry plaster. Over the course of several hours the clay slip solidifies and once released from the mould any rough areas on the pot (particularly along where the seams had been) would be cleaned up by hand.

The plaster moulds would be allowed to dry and then could be reused, although they didn't last for ever, so a section of the factory would have been occupied in the production of these moulds. Likewise there was also a slip room where plastic clay was liquefied and then piped to where it was needed within the pottery.

Although this technique would have been used for many years within the tile works and architectural pottery at Poole, I think that its use for domestic pottery would have coincided with the introduction of streamline tableware in 1935, and possibly that it was the introduction of white earthenware clay in 1934 that allowed this technique to be used.

Traditional Poole decorative ware had always been hand thrown. However, this slip casting technique was used in the production of the irregular shaped Freeform vases and non-round plates/dishes in the 1950's, and for the majority of production subsequently, with the exception of round plates which were always made by a different mechanised process.