Everyone loves English ceramics

Visitors to the forthcoming Antiques for Everyone at the NEC, Birmingham, will get the chance to uncover and celebrate the craftsmanship of ceramics with the English Ceramic Circle who will have an exhibition at the event.

The feature exhibition will include a fine display of diverse ceramics, ranging from Chelsea (1760) right through to Lucy Rie (1930), an Austrian studio potter, who took inspiration from Japan and specialised in brightly coloured, delicate and modernist pottery. Rie did not follow the usual potter’s procedure of bisque-firing the object, applying glaze, and re-firing it. Instead she painted her glazes directly onto the “green,” unfired body, firing the piece only once. She experimented with a wide spectrum of colours and her glazes, often softly modulated, ranged from satiny smooth to deeply pitted “volcanic” textures ensuring visually pleasing pieces to witness at the fair.

Visitors can also expect to see some impressive wares from Samuel Astles, one of the foremost flower painters employed at the Worcester Flight & Barr factory, a vase decorated by Hannah Barlow, the first female artist to work at the Doulton Factory at Lambeth, in London, and Parian statues and busts by William Boynton Kirk, who worked for the Worcester Porcelain factory.

The English Ceramic Circle will also be presenting three talks across the fair with topics including; “250 years at the Worcester Porcelain Factory”, “Orchid Mania on Ceramics” and “Wonderful Welsh – Pottery and Porcelain of South Wales”.

Founded in 1927, The English Ceramic Circle , founded in 1927, is the oldest society dedicated to the study of British ceramics which advances knowledge of ceramics by promoting and publishing new research. Its worldwide membership embraces collectors, curators, archaeologists, potters, auctioneers, dealers, social historians and all those with an interest in the history of ceramics made in the British Isles.

Antiques for Everyone takes place from 6th to 9th April.