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Elton
Elton Ware was, without doubt, one of the most influential Arts and Crafts potteries. Sir Edmund Elton (1846-1920) started the Sunflower Pottery at his home near Bristol, in 1881, using clay from his own estate and with the assistance of gardener George Masters. He produced a range of decorative art pottery, which, in 1882, took the name "Elton Ware". Showing influence from diverse cultures, such as Japan, medieval Europe and South America, Sir Elton produced a range of unusual and imaginative shapes. His work featured relief decoration that was vaguely Art Nouveau in style, but influenced by the primitive quality of early English slipware. The designs were made from coloured slips which were built up and then worked into shapes through modelling and carving. The wares were fired once, in order to fix the colours, then re-fired with a led glaze. A self-taught potter, Sir Elton was not one to give in easily, his failures only making him keener to succeed. He experimented with many unique glaze styles, which included his trademark marbling and blending of colours, as well as gold, copper and silver crackle and lustre glazes. His pieces are easily recognisable, with their unusually shaped, 'grotesque' stump-like handles and spouts, some pieces adorned with several such protrusions. Elton Ware was exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in London and was stocked by the retailer Howell & James of Regent Street. No doubt owing to his participation and success in the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, Sir Elton received a continuous string of orders from the prestigious Tiffany's of New York. Following Sir Elton's death, the business was carried on by his son for a year, only to close in 1921. All pieces made by Sir Elton were signed "Elton", whereas those produced posthumously were marked "Elton +". References: Elton Ware: The Pottery of Sir Edmund Elton (Malcolm Haslam), Richard Dennis, 1989 A Collector's History of English Pottery, 5th Edition (Griselda Lewis), Antique Collectors' Club, 1999 |
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