Blog Arts de la table

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.

Another batch of pre-loved china has made its way onto the MrPottery shelves, with a mixture of newly catalogued pieces and the welcome return of a piece already familiar to the website.

This time there is a particularly good selection of serving ware, including several substantial pieces of Villeroy & Boch Twist-Alea, together with a few rather more unusual finds. We have also added more Wedgwood Florentine, a small group of Colclough Wayside plates and a useful batch of Royal Doulton Wild Cherry mugs.

There is a definite moment in the year when the table changes.

Summer plates, salad bowls and jugs for the garden do not disappear completely, but they stop being the stars of the show. The evenings get darker, the kitchen starts to feel like the warmest room in the house again, and suddenly the pieces we reach for are different.

Some tableware patterns are subtle. Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz is not really one of them.

It is pretty, floral, cheerful and unmistakably of its time, in the best possible way. With pink flowers, pastel detail, soft borders and that familiar Johnson Brothers earthenware feel, Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz belongs very happily to the country kitchen and afternoon tea side of tableware history.

Some Royal Albert patterns are bold, dramatic and instantly showy. Royal Albert Lavender Rose takes a softer approach.

With its pink rose sprays, delicate lavender tones, green foliage, white fine bone china and gold trim, Royal Albert Lavender Rose has a gentler feel than some of the maker’s more flamboyant floral patterns. It is still unmistakably Royal Albert, but it has a lightness that makes it especially pretty on a tea table.

We have added another small but interesting selection of discontinued china and replacement tableware to the MrPottery website this week. It is not the largest stock update we have ever put together, but there are definitely a few pieces here worth a closer look. This...

It would be easy to look at the recent news around Denby and feel rather gloomy about British pottery. Another historic name changed forever. Another working pottery lost. Another reminder that the tableware industry we grew up with is not the same one we have today.

And yes, there is sadness in that. Denby closing its pottery doors is a genuine loss, particularly for those of us who care about British-made tableware, factory history and the everyday pieces that have sat on kitchen tables for generations.

But it is not the whole story.

Some tableware patterns shout for attention. Poole Pottery Twintone does something rather more confident. It keeps things simple, pairs two complementary colours, and somehow manages to look both practical and quietly stylish at the same time.

Produced in a wide range of colour combinations over many decades, Poole Pottery Twintone is not really one single pattern in the usual sense. It is better thought of as a family of related designs, linked by colour, shape and that very recognisable Poole Pottery feel.