Poole Pottery "Arden"

Poole Pottery Arden was introduced in the mid 1970s, during a period when Poole was producing a number of decorative tableware patterns on the long-running Compact shape. Arden was one of the designs shown in Poole promotional material for Compact tableware decorated with glaze-reactive lithographs on a Parkstone glaze background.

The design centres on a stylised tree, with fine branching detail and earthy green-brown tones. Around the rim, a coordinating border adds balance to the design, while the softly speckled Parkstone ground gives the pieces a warm, slightly rustic look. It is a very period Poole design, sitting neatly between everyday tableware and the more decorative styling that became increasingly popular in the 1970s.

The Compact shape itself was designed by Robert Jefferson and became one of Poole’s important modern tableware shapes, used across a wide range of patterns. Arden’s decoration works particularly well on the broad, simple plate forms, where the tree motif has plenty of space to sit clearly within the design.

As Arden is now discontinued, availability depends on what comes to us through the pre-loved market. Dinner plates and salad plates are often the hardest pieces to find and among the most sought after, no doubt because these were the items most heavily used. Arden may have been produced mainly, or possibly only, as decorated plates, with the rest of the service made up from plain Poole Parkstone pieces.