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'Fish set' small dish: C.35-1996

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

'Fish set' small dish

Maker(s)

Production: Shorter & Son Ltd.
Designer: Cliff, Clarice (Probably)

Entities

Categories

Description

Earthenware, glazed in matt apricot and green, painted with black enamel.

Moulded earthenware dish in the shape of a fish. Circular base, shallow curved sides and fish-shaped edge. The interior is moulded with scales, a fin, and the mouth, eye and gill of the fish. The whole piece is covered in a matt, apricot glaze, with pale green glaze lightly applied over on fins and tail and the pupil of the eye painted black. Three spur marks near the edges.

Notes

History note: Purchased from N.J.Zolman, 1996

Legal notes

Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Measurements and weight

Height: 2.2 cm
Length: 23 cm
Width: 20.8 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Stoke-on-Trent ⪼ Staffordshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1996) by The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Dating

20th Century, Mid
1930s
Production date: circa AD 1935

Note

Another ‘fish set’ was produced by A J Wilkinson in the 1920s/30s. Marked as designed by Clarice Cliff, items in this series have a cream ground and are decorated with a relief, polychrome fish.

Clarice Cliff (1899-1972) joined the pottery industry at 13, as a paintress. She joined A J Wilkinson in 1916 as a lithographer, rising to become a modeller and shape designer. After local evening classes, she studied at the Royal College of Art. In 1929, A J Wilkinson introduced her colourful Art Deco ‘Bizarre’ series, which established her as a well-known designer. In 1940 she married Arthur Colley Shorter, the managing director, and through him became a major shareholder in the family group, founded in the 1870s, which comprised Wilkinson, Newport Pottery and Shorter & Son. Her younger sister Dolly Cliff also worked at Wilkinson’s, supervising a team of specialist decorators, and some of her designs were later issued under Clarice’s name.

‘Fish ware’, one of Shorter & Son’s most popular designs, was first introduced in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The Fitzwilliam holds a serving bowl and cover, a sauce boat and stand, a serving dish/plate and six small dishes/plates in this series. A similar version is illustrated in ‘The Quiver’, December 1936; it is attributed to Clarice Cliff, and described as ‘in a delicious matt cream glaze in pottery [with] only softly subdued turquoise fins as colour accent'. In the 1950s a high glaze version was produced, in various colourways.

Components of the work

Decoration composed of enamel ( black) glaze ( matt green and apricot)

Materials used in production

Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Moulding : Earthenware, moulded, covered with matt pale apricot glaze overall, and painted with green glaze on the fins, and with black enamel on the eye.
Glazing (coating)

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: SHORTER & SON LTD./STOKE-ON-TRENT,/ENGLAND
  • Location: On base
  • Method of creation: Faint greyish-black backstamp
  • Type: Mark

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.35-1996
Primary reference Number: 197256
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 20 August 2013 Updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 Last processed: Wednesday 13 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "'Fish set' small dish" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/197256 Accessed: 2024-03-29 15:20:21

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/197256 |title='Fish set' small dish |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-29 15:20:21|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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