Moorcroft Pottery Trays 780/4, Ceramic Art

Name: Moorcroft Pottery Trays 780/4, Ceramic Art
Brand: Moorcroft Pottery
Price: 185.82 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

2 Small Moorcroft ceramic plates, the so-called 780/4 trays. The ceramic plates have two different floral designs, are hand painted and glazed to a high gloss. Two great collector's items, delightful hall trays for personal treasures and a touch of British royal flair for your home. The first Moorcroft art pottery was designed by William Moorcroft and launched in 1897. In 1913, under the name W. Moorcroft Ltd, the present factory was established in Sandbach Road. William Moorcroft was a graduate of what is now the Royal College of Art in London. His novel art pottery was purchased by prestigious stores from the beginning. Meanwhile, early Moorcroft ceramics are highly valued by the most prestigious auction houses around the world and regularly fetch high prices. To this day, Moorcroft remains true to its reputation, standing for remarkable artistic quality that has stood the test of time for more than a century. Even England's Queen Elizabeth II continues to add new designs by Moorcroft to the royal collection.

Creator:

Moorcroft Pottery (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 0.79 in (2 cm)Diameter: 3.94 in (10 cm)

Sold As:

Set of 2

Style:

Art Nouveau (In the Style Of)

Materials and Techniques:

Ceramic,Glazed,Hand-Painted

Place of Origin:

United Kingdom

Period:

1990-1999

Date of Manufacture:

1990

Condition:

Seller Location:

Hamburg, DE

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU3958327706622

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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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