Birds rarely appeared in Carlton Ware's early patterns from what we call the Blushware period 1890-1911. It is only when Horace Wain joins the pottery c.1912 that fowl begin to feature, though usually taken from traditional 18th century Chinese designs or their copies by long established British potteries such as Royal Worcester, hence Wain's WORCESTER BIRDS pattern.
In the early 1920s, when Enoch Boulton replaces Wain as decorating manager and designer, more original bird patterns are introduced. Initially, the fowl are represented realistically but some develop into fantastical feathered creatures.
Shaded DARK BLUE & CRIMSON ground.
CHINESE BIRD
In this article we look at one example of these exotic creations, namely CHINESE BIRD and how it evolved by the addition of a background of a gold cloud and later with more abstract, shadowy backgrounds devised by Violet Elmer.
The first of these designs was CHINESE BIRD 3196 that I estimate was introduced around 1928. It has a deep blue ground, which makes a striking foil for the gold print, though this contrast does not show up well in the image here. ...
CHINESE BIRD 3197 has a DARK BLUE LUSTRE ground and 3198 has a RUBY LUSTRE ground. There were seven more variants excluding those with the gold cloud discussed below.
Blown PINK ground with a MATT GLAZE.
Matt Glazes
Also about 1928, Boulton begins to use matt glazes. Though they are predominately used on the HANDCRAFT range of patterns, these attractive silky finishes are also used on other patterns such as CHINESE BIRD 3299 shown on the right.
Every Cloud has a gold lining
In 1927, a year or so earlier, Enoch Boulton had devised a background that could be used with a number of existing patterns. This took the form of an elaborate gold printed cloud with a filigree lining.
It was first used on Boulton's SWALLOW pattern to become SWALLOW & CLOUD.
This was followed by its adoption on his PARADISE BIRD & TREE pattern, which became the rather long winded PARADISE BIRD & TREE with CLOUD.
Clever Cloud!
The 'cloud' was a clever device. Patterns were printed from engraved copper plates which were costly to commission. For a smaller outlay the 'cloud' prints enabled many more new patterns to be introduced. However, the extra printing and gold embellishments must have involved considerably more work for the decorators. This must have made the 'cloud' patterns somewhat expensive.
CHINESE BIRD was an obvious candidate for the enhancement giving us CHINESE BIRD & CLOUD.
CHINESE BIRD & CLOUD
I show two examples of CHINESE BIRD & CLOUD below though there were ten in all.
It is extraordinary that Carlton Ware offered its customers so many colour variations.
which has a freehand painted 'pebbled' background.
which has a freehand painted YELLOW 'ochre' background.
Enter Miss Elmer
When Enoch Boulton left Carlton Ware in 1930, having been poached by Crown Devon, Cuthbert Wiltshaw asked Violet Elmer to take over as designer for Carlton Ware made at the Copeland Street pottery. The Oxford born 20 year old began working for Carlton Ware in 1928 when she was taken on to design bone china patterns for the china works of Birks Rawlins that Cuthbert Wiltshaw had just bought.
Clearly, Miss Elmer's two years working on the china tea and coffee ware designs for the nearby china works had convinced Cuthbert that she was quite capable of designing for the earthenwares made at Copeland Street.
In 1932 Miss Elmer took Enoch Boulton's CHINESE BIRD pattern and gave it one of her characteristic shadowy backgrounds, not of the bird but of the curlicues and wispy abstract forms that Boulton used to accompany it.
The young designer also chose to employ a matt glaze but this time on a stippled ochre ground.
Miss Elmer used a similar effect on two other CHINESE BIRD patterns, shown below.
which has a freehand painted 'ochre' background.
which has a stippled MATT GREEN background.
When I first published this page, I made an error with the annotations of the two images above, now corrected. Thanks to Keith Burdis for noticing these mistakes and for letting me know.
It is doubtfull that elaborate gold printed patterns such as these will ever be produced again.
Notice that little or no raised enamels are used on the examples shown. This may well have been thought to be gilding the lily. However, all involved elaborate underglaze painting and often onglaze lustres to parts of the bird and surrounding areas.
Finally, look at the picture below that Jack Segal sent, which shows the care with which the Carlton Ware printers, paintresses and gilders took to create these wonderful decorations. The high magnification reveals the precision that they achieved.
© Harvey Pettit 2020
Blues, mauves, greys, greens and yellows are painted underglaze. The reds and oranges are lustres so have to be applied onglaze.
I would like to thank our Facebook Group members for posting images for use in this article, in particular Jack Segal and Keith Burdis for their high quality pictures.
Following our usual convention, patterns named in the pottery's records are shown in BOLD UPPERCASE.
Names given by the long-standing Carlton Ware World naming committee are shown in Bold Capitalised Lowercase.
Shape names or names of colours given in the pottery's records are simply shown in UPPERCASE.