The Fulham Pottery 1932-1965: a return to ‘artistic’ production

The Fulham Pottery is celebrated in the history of ceramics as the first pottery in England to perfect the large-scale manufacture of salt-glazed stoneware and for the artistic quality and innovation of its early wares. The fact that the Pottery remained in operation on the same site for over three centuries is also remarkable. By the early twentieth century only utilitarian stoneware was being manufactured but from the 1930s onwards a series of attempts were made to re-introduce the production of ‘art’ pottery to Fulham. This culminated in a successful collaboration with society florist Constance Spry to create a range of unique, avant-garde, flower vases. The paper commences with a brief historical survey of this important British pottery before focusing on a range of attempts to re-establish its ‘artistic’ credentials with the introduction of new ranges commencing in 1932. For the first time it reveals exact dates, designers and the wider context for the production of vases specifically aimed at a newly created generation of ‘home’ flower arrangers. Constance Spry was an important figure in helping popularise French avant-garde approaches to interior design and decoration in the upper echelons of British society. The paper also demonstrates the catastrophic effect both WWII and the Clean Air Act 1956 had on British ceramic manufacturers and how one pottery attempted to stay relevant against a background of such challenges combined with changing public taste.