Poole Pottery Vineyard, Anita Harris and a 1990s Poole Classic

Poole Pottery has produced plenty of patterns that are instantly associated with a particular period, and Poole Pottery Vineyard is very much a product of the 1990s.

Designed by Anita Harris, Vineyard combines blue grapes, green vine leaves and softly sponged decoration on a creamy white earthenware body. It has an informal, country kitchen feel that is quite different from the cleaner shapes and solid colours of earlier Poole tableware, yet it still makes good use of the hand decorating skills for which the pottery had long been known.

It also became a remarkably extensive range. Plates, cups and bowls were only the beginning. Vineyard appeared on casseroles, roasting dishes, serving bowls, pitchers, storage jars, butter dishes, ramekins and many other pieces intended to be used throughout the kitchen and on the table.

Part of a New Look for Poole

The early 1990s were an important period for Poole Pottery.

During the previous decade the company had begun moving towards a more informal style of tableware, with greater use of sponging, hand painting and transfer decoration. By the beginning of the 1990s that change had gathered pace, bringing a number of new designers and a noticeably different look to the Poole range.

Anita Harris joined Poole in 1992 and became one of the designers closely associated with this new period. Alongside ranges including Blue Vine, Blue Leaf and later Winter Vine, Vineyard helped establish a softer, more decorative image for the pottery.

It still felt handmade, but it was designed for increasingly relaxed family dining rather than a formal dinner service kept for special occasions.

When Was Vineyard Introduced?

There is an interesting little wrinkle here for collectors.

Leslie Hayward's history of Poole Pottery actually gives two different dates. An illustrated caption identifies Vineyard as a sponge decorated Anita Harris pattern introduced in 1993, while elsewhere in the same chapter the narrative gives 1995.

Anita Harris has described Vineyard as one of the first designs she produced after joining Poole in 1992, which supports the earlier date. For that reason, we use 1993 as the introduction date for Vineyard.

It is a useful reminder that even good pottery reference books occasionally disagree with themselves, and that production dates are not always as tidy as collectors might like them to be.

A Simple Design That Works Surprisingly Hard

At first glance Vineyard is quite a simple pattern.

Clusters of blue grapes sit among green vine leaves, usually accompanied by soft green sponge decoration around rims, edges or lids. The base colour is a warm creamy white rather than a stark white, which gives the whole range a softer appearance.

That simplicity is probably part of the reason it worked across so many different shapes. The motif could sit comfortably around the edge of a plate, across the side of a jug, around a casserole or on the surface of a storage jar without looking as though the decoration had simply been stretched to fit.

The sponged finish also keeps the pieces from looking too precise. Vineyard has the slight variation and softness you expect from decoration involving hand applied techniques, which suits its informal style.

Green, Blue and the Little Variations

Most Vineyard pieces have green sponge detail, including green rims and green knobs on lidded items.

There are variations, however. Some serving pieces can be found with blue sponge rims or blue lid knobs, and we have handled both versions over the years.

There are also differences in shape and size. Dinner plates, for example, can be found in several slightly different diameters and with differing widths of green border. Bowls can appear with the Vineyard decoration on the inside or the outside, while some cup and saucer shapes also vary.

None of this makes Vineyard particularly difficult to recognise, but it does matter if you are replacing pieces in an existing service and want them to match closely.

Much More Than a Dinner Service

One of the best things about Vineyard is the sheer variety of pieces that were made.

Alongside the expected dinner plates, breakfast plates, tea plates, cups, saucers and bowls were teapots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, coffee ware, pasta bowls and large serving platters.

Then things become rather more interesting.

The range also included casseroles in several capacities, flan and quiche dishes, oval and oblong roasting dishes, ramekins, large serving bowls, footed bowls and substantial pitchers. We have handled four pint and even nine pint pitchers, the latter being quite an impressive lump of Poole Pottery when full.

Kitchen storage was part of the range too, including storage jars, biscuit jars and a bread bin. Other less common pieces include butter dishes, candlesticks and a compote.

That breadth tells us something about the way Vineyard was intended to be used. This was not just china for laying a dinner table. It was designed to move between kitchen, oven, dresser and dining table, fitting neatly into the increasingly informal style of home life Poole was responding to during the 1990s.

A Pattern Designed to Be Used

Vineyard looks decorative, but there is nothing particularly precious about it.

Its appeal comes partly from being practical. A casserole can sit in the middle of the table. A big jug can be used for water, flowers or whatever else somebody decides to put in it. Pasta bowls and serving dishes suit modern meals just as well now as they did when the range was introduced.

That has probably helped Vineyard age rather well.

The grape motif is unmistakably decorative, but the colours are restrained enough to live happily in a modern kitchen. Cream, blue and green are not particularly demanding colours, and the vine decoration gives the pattern character without making every piece feel overly formal.

A Small Television Cameo

Vineyard also appears to have earned itself a little background television fame.

Anita Harris has recalled that Vineyard was displayed for years on the farmhouse dresser belonging to the Sugden family on television. It is exactly the sort of pattern that works well in a set dresser's hands because it looks convincingly domestic.

Not a prop demanding attention, just the sort of pottery you might genuinely expect to find stacked on a kitchen dresser.

Replacing Poole Pottery Vineyard

Vineyard remains one of the more substantial later Poole ranges on the pre-loved market, although individual pieces can vary enormously in availability.

Everyday plates and saucers tend to appear reasonably regularly. Larger serving pieces, complete lidded casseroles, storage pieces and some of the less common mugs and giftware can take rather longer to find.

When replacing Vineyard, it is worth checking the diameter of plates and bowls rather than relying on the description alone. Several similar sizes were produced, and even relatively small differences become obvious when pieces are stacked together.

It is also worth checking the rim colour and lid detail on casseroles and serving pieces if you are trying to match an existing set exactly.

You can see our current stock of Poole Pottery Vineyard replacement china on the MrPottery website. As always, everything we sell comes from the pre-loved market, so the selection changes as pieces arrive and find new homes.

A Very Poole Kind of 1990s Design

Vineyard represents an interesting chapter in Poole Pottery's history.

It came from a period when the pottery was looking forward, bringing in new designers and adapting its traditional decorating skills to a more relaxed style of tableware. Anita Harris took those skills and produced a pattern that was decorative, practical and broad enough to fill an entire kitchen.

More than thirty years later, those blue grapes and green vines remain instantly recognisable.

And whether somebody is replacing a single tea plate or hunting for the enormous pitcher that completes a collection, Vineyard is still doing exactly what it was designed to do: being used.