Boulton's Birds - Part Three

The MAGPIE pattern
and its Borders
By Enoch Boulton

by Harvey Pettit
with border artwork by Barbara Anne Lee

This is the third in a series of sixteen articles on bird patterns introduced by Enoch Boulton during his tenure as designer and decorating manager at the Carlton Works from 1921/22 to 1930.

Below is an image of a Carlton Ware floating flower bowl with the MAGPIE pattern printed in black. The MAGPIE BORDER Bead decorates its in-curving rim, which helps prevent water spillage when moving the bowl to its desired spot, perhaps on a sideboard or dining table.

Carlton Ware's MAGPIE pattern on a floating flower bowl with an ORANGE LUSTRINE ground
devised by Enoch Boulton and introduced in 1924.

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Striking Simplicity

Most versions of MAGPIE are simply printed in black. On that shown above, the corvid perched on the branch cleverly stands out against the rest of the pattern. This is because the bird has been masked from the ORANGE LUSTRINE that covers the rest of the pattern. The lustre coating mutes the branches and the birds in flight pushing them further into the backgound giving a three-dimesional effect. The border also escapes the lustre, making it stand out as well. If you enlarge the image by tapping or clicking on it and zoom in by tapping or clicking again, you can see this detail.

I estimate that MAGPIE was introduced in 1924. Sixteen variants were offered in its year of introduction, with another three added some years later, giving a total of nineteen for buyers to choose from. Though most were printed in black, two were reprinted in gold, 2912 and 2912A.

Below are three more examples. On these, most of the pattern print has been masked from the background so that it is not muted by the coloured ground. This must have required a steady hand. By enlarging the vase with the LEMON YELLOW ground, you can see the margins between the print and the ground colour; where the yellow slightly overlaps the black, the yellow turns the black print into a grey.

Carlton Ware's MAGPIE 2907A vase — MAGPIE 2907A vase S139 TURKISH BLUE ground.

Carlton Ware's MAGPIE 2907 FRUIT PLATE — MAGPIE pattern 2907 FRUIT PLATE, POST OFFICE RED ground, the first of nineteen variants.

Carlton Ware's MAGPIE 2908 vase S226 — MAGPIE pattern 2908 vase S226 LEMON YELLOW ground.

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MAGPIE BORDERS

In Carlton Ware's pattern records, MAGPIE 2907 is shown with what was named the FULL MAGPIE BORDER. Working from a photograph of the entry in the pattern records, Barb has redrawn the border for us. However, I have not seen an example of such a border on ware. If you have, let us know.

MAGPIE FULL BORDER on a POST OFFICE RED ground.

MAGPIE BORDER Bead

All examples of MAGPIE I have come across use only the simpler part of the border that is best named MAGPIE BORDER Bead, which again Barb has drawn for us below.

To view more variants of MAGPIE BORDER Bead, click or tap on its image above.

FULL MAGPIE BORDER

The FULL MAGPIE BORDER was used alone, probably on plates or (luncheon) trays, though again I have not seen an example. Pattern records indicate that there was much experimentation with the choice of ground colours. Again using a photograph from the records, Barb has redrawn the variant of the solitary border allocated the pattern number 2935 where the "berries" are painted in different coloured enamels.

MAGPIE FULL BORDER on a BUFF (amber) ground. — FULL MAGPIE BORDER 2935 on a BUFF (PODMORE'S AMBER) ground.

To view more variants of the FULL MAGPIE BORDER, click or tap on its image above.

Harvey

V1 October 2024.
If more accurate information comes to light I will update this page.

Barb would like to thank the members of our companion Facebook Group who supplied good quality images to help her replicate the borders above.