Vase: C.42-1981

Maker(s)

Factory: Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian Pottery
Potter: Radford, Edward Thomas ((Edward Thomas))

Entities

• Vase

Categories

• Earthenware

Description

Vase covered inside and out with a with black, freckled glaze. Thrown, white earthenware body, urn shaped - the sides curve upwards from the base in a convex line to the shoulder and then inwards to form a cylindrical, slightly flared, neck. The lower part and the neck are smooth; the area between is horizontally ridged. The underside is concave, and glazed.

Acquisition and important dates

(1981)

Dating

20th Century, Early
1930s
Circa 1930 CE - 1936 CE

Note

Edward Thomas Radford (b.1860) joined Pilkington’s as an experienced thrower of pots, in 1903, having served his apprenticeship with Wedgwood and worked at Linthorpe, Burmantofts and Doulton potteries. It is said that he could throw a large pot and then make a lid to fit it exactly, using only his eye and hand. Some of his pots were huge, but some were tiny: in Salford Museum there are examples of his pots which are only an inch and a half high. Towards the end of his career he gave demonstrations of throwing in the window of the local china merchants. Radford stayed at Pilkington’s until he retired, in 1936, aged 76, and Pilkington’s ceased pottry production soon afterwards. According to some sources, the inscribed initials are typically found on his later pots.

Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Company, formed in 1891/92, was one of the largest producers of decorative tiles. Lancastrian Pottery was introduced in 1904, using simple classical shapes and decorated with innovative coloured glaze effects, such that no two pieces were identical. Pilkington’s gained a Royal Warrant in 1913, but tile manufacture dominated production after World War I.

School or Style

Art Pottery