RUSKIN POTTERY
FIVE VASES, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Estimate: £400 - £600
Auction: 19 March 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
each with impressed factory marks, to include; a LARGE LUSTRE VASE, dated 1924, 25.3cm high (10in high); a SHOULDERED VASE, with floral decoration, dated 1906, 19.6cm high (7¾in high); a BLUE LUSTRE VASE, circa 1920, 15.7cm high (6¼in) high; a PINK LUSTRE VASE, dated 1922, 16cm high (6¼in high); a BALUSTER VASE, dated 1906, 14.5cm high (5¾in high), lustre-glazed stoneware (5)
Footnote
What distinguishes Ruskin Pottery even today is the glazes – crystalline, lustre and sang de boeuf (or high-fired flambé). The latter was created using copper and iron oxides.
Founded by Edward R. Taylor in 1898, the studio pottery was then continued by his son William Howson Taylor (1876-1935). It was located in Smethwick in Staffordshire. Historically it can be viewed as part of a revival of interest in ceramics in Europe inspired by Chinese glazes and oriental forms. Potters sought to create new glaze effects. From about 1903 William Howson Taylor developed a range of glazes in particular flambé and for the next thirty years he continued to experiment. The works he conceived can be compared to those of Chapelet, Delaherche and Dalypayrat in France. As no one glaze can be repeated each piece produced in the pottery can be regarded as unique.
At its peak the pottery had twenty employees, five lustre kilns and one high-firing kiln. In 1933 the pottery closed.