Wheel Boy, Bench Boy, Thrower: C.4-1969

Titles

Wheel Boy, Bench Boy, Thrower

Maker(s)

Pottery: Martin Brothers
Modeller: Martin, Robert Wallace

Entities

• Plaque

Categories

• Stoneware
• Salt-glazed stoneware
• Art Pottery
• Martin ware

Description

Salt-glazed stoneware plaque modelled in relief, with incised and coloured decoration.

Rectangular salt glazed stoneware plaque, standing vertical on a horizontal base. Decorated with incisions and relief modelling, with three figures added. The plaque is covered in beige slip and painted with cream, brown and blue/black slips. The back is roughly hollowed-out into 8x3 honeycomb boxes. There are deep incisions in the clay of the back and underside and two round holes in the top.

Three figures are shown working at the Martin Brothers' Southall Pottery. On the left, a boy turns the potters wheel, to the right of centre another (the 'bench boy') is wedging the clay and making clay balls ready for use by the thrower. On the right the potter is shaping the pot, as it rises from the wheel,The workers are shown against a background of vases on a rack of shelves and a window. The words 'Thrower', 'Bench Boy' and 'Wheel Boy' are inscribed in black on the front of the base, below each figure, and 'R.W Martin Sc. Southall Pottery. 1892' is inscribed below them, to the right.

Notes

History note: Collection of G.C. Monkhouse, Esq.; sold Sotheby's, 10th April, 1969, Nineteenth Century English Pottery and Porcelain, p. 39, lot 180.

Legal notes

Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Place(s) associated

• Southall ⪼ Middlesex ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1969) by The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Dating

19th Century, Late#
Victorian
Production date: dated AD 1882

Note

Several versions of this plaque were produced. The three figures were also produced separately, modelled in the round. It has been suggested that they represent three of the brothers, but a more likely identification seems to be Walter or Edwin Martin (thrower), Elvin Kellord (bench boy) and Tommy Cox (wheel boy).

The Martin Brothers were amongst the first ‘artist-potters’ of the late nineteenth century. Robert Wallace Martin (1843-24), Walter (1857-1912) and Edwin (1860-1915) designed, made and decorated their own ornamental salt-glazed stoneware, originally using facilities at C.J.C.Bailey’s Fulham Pottery and, briefly, at Shepherd’s Bush. In 1877, they opened their own pottery at Southall, Middlesex, and by 1882 were producing some 5,000 pieces a year. Wallace had originally trained as a sculptor, exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy and elsewhere from c.1863. His younger brothers had learned their skills at Doulton’s, Walter as a thrower and chemist, Edwin as a decorator. Modelled work is generally attributed to Wallace, but otherwise it is thought that the three learned from each other, exchanging skills and sharing roles. A fourth brother, Charles (1846-1910), sold the products – known as ‘Martin-ware’ – from a shop at Brownlow Street, London.

School or Style

Art Pottery