Moorcroft Pottery Big Poppy Vase

About the Item

A large Moorcroft Pottery big poppy vase. Walter Moorcroft era. The base bears impressed marks and a blue glaze script Walter Moorcroft signature. Height: circa 10 in. Items purchased from David Sterner antiques must delight you. Purchases may be returned for any reason for a period of 7 days.

Creator:
Moorcroft Pottery (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 10.1 in (25.66 cm)Diameter: 4.25 in (10.8 cm)
Style:
Arts and Crafts (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Pottery,Glazed
Place of Origin:
United Kingdom
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Mid-20th Century
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. A tiny spot of fritting (where there was extra glaze) to the foot rim, a pencil point spot of glaze loss above one flower, fine and tight crazing throughout, a few noticeable scratches, and several light glaze and surface scratches here and there.
Seller Location:
Philadelphia, PA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU161024085853
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Moorcroft Pottery

William Moorcroft (1872–1945), the founder of the celebrated British art-pottery company that shares his last name, was both an aesthete and a technical innovator. Along with William de Morgan, he is regarded as one of the greatest ceramists of the Arts and Crafts movement, yet Moorcroft’s singular style is heavily inflected with the lush naturalism of the Art Nouveau school of art and design.

The son of a decorative pottery painter, Moorcroft was born in Staffordshire, the center of English ceramics-making, studied at the Wedgwood Institute and in 1897 joined the local pottery manufacturer James Macintyre & Co. as a designer. After a year, he was put in charge of the company’s art-pottery studio, and there he developed a new style of wares named “Florian,” made with a technique called tube-lining, or slip-trailing. In this method, decorative motifs are outlined with a thin, raised border produced by piping a thread of clay onto the body of a vessel — much like squeezing toothpaste from a tube.

Moorcroft, who took the unusual step of signing his ceramics, would go on to win numerous international awards. In 1913, backed by the London department store Liberty & Co., he left Macintyre to open his own workshop. Queen Mary, wife of King George V, gave Moorcroft her Royal Warrant in 1928. Shortly before he died in 1945, his son, Walter Moorcroft (1917–2002), took over as head of the firm. The pottery company is still in business in Staffordshire, with a design department headed by Rachel Bishop.

William Moorcroft’s ceramics are noted for their colorful, ebullient (and often slightly surreal) decorations depicting stylized natural forms — flowers, toadstools, fruit (pomegranate is a favorite among collectors), insects and landscapes. Most Moorcroft wares are finished with a glossy overglaze. Blue-and-white and pastel shades were generally used as underglazes on early Moorcroft pieces, and he later developed a rich, ruddy background glaze he called “flambé.”

Moorcroft art pottery has a rich, warm and inviting look — a comforting aesthetic that explains their enduring appeal.

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