Perfect Pieces Specialists in British Pottery

The bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade has been much in the news recently, but what is less known is a connection between one of Britain’s oldest and finest potteries and the 18th century slave trade abolition movement, the Society for the Abolition of Slavery.

Josiah Wedgwood was a fervent abolitionist, and through his creative talents, created a memorable and lasting reminder of the cause he believed in so passionately.

The emblem of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery was a kneeling, chained slave, beseeching mercy from his masters. Around him were the words “Am I not a man and a brother?” This motto was also
adopted by Britain’s Committee To Abolish The Slave Trade, and in 1787 Wedgwood arranged for a Jasper copy of the emblem to be made in the form of a medallion.

The Slave Medallion was widely adopted and worn with fashionable jewellery by the growing number of supporters of abolition. Made from white jasper, the medallion was decorated with a black basalt relief figure of a kneeling slave in chains. We have never seen a Slave Medallion, but two fine examples and more information on Wedgwood’s anti-slave activites can be found on these two sites:

thePotteries.org - Josiah Wedgwood was a keen advocate of the anti-slave movement

Wedgwood Museum - Slave Medalion: When Fashion Promoted The Cause of Humanity

One of the biggest concerns we come across amongst people who are anxious about buying antique pottery online is whether it will be packed well enough to survive the postal system. Horror stories abound - we spoke to someone who had received a Troika Spice Jar that had been wrapped in newspaper and posted in a jiffy bag… from Australia [to the UK]! Needless to say it was in pieces on arrival…

The truth, however, is that packing pottery well is not especially difficult, and can be done almost wholly with recylced packaging materials if necessary.

To help anyone who isn’t sure where to start, we thought it might be useful to provide this illustrated guide to packaging.

How To Pack Pottery

Here’s how we do it. Bear in mind that this is a fairly small, light item being posted within the UK. For an international shipment, or a heavy item that might shift in transit, we would double box the package. This means that the box pictured would be placed within another box, with a layer of padding between them. The benefit of this is that even if the outer box is damaged/placed under pressure, the inner box should be relatively unaffected, protecting the item from damage in most scenarios.

1. Wrap the item in several layers of bubble wrap. Bubble wrap can get caught on gilding and on some kinds of paint (causing it to flake), so if in doubt about this, first wrap the item in a layer of tissue, then in bubble wrap:

   

2. Having identified a suitable box (one that is reasonably strong, in good condition, and allows at least 1.5″ - 2″ around the item), fill the base with packaging. We’re using proper polystyrene packaging in this example, but shredded newspaper or polystyrene packaging from other items can also be used (bear in mind paper weighs more, so will add to your postage costs):

   

3. Build up a good layer of poly or shredded paper in the base - aim to position the item being packed in the centre of the box:

   

4. Place the item in the box, on top of the packaging. In this example it looks a bit of a tight fit, but this is only a result of the camera angle/perspective - there is enough room around it:

   

5. Fill the area around the items with packaging - make sure you fill the space down the sides up evenly - this will hold the item safely in place in the centre of the box. As a guide, when you have finished packing the box, you should be able to shake it without the item moving at all:

   

6. Now it is just a case of filling the area above the item with packaging - make sure this comes slightly above the top of the box, so that when you tape the box closed the packaging will be compressed slightly - this will stop it moving around and settling too much, and hold the item firmly in place:

   

7. Tape the box tightly closed with proper parcel tape - usually available cheap from markets, car boots, etc.:

   

8. As we have not used a plain box, we will cover it in brown paper too. This is not always necessary:

   

9. And voila - nicely covered in brown paper and taped up:

   

10. There’s only one stage left - label the parcel. Small fragile labels are available free from the post office, but proper fragile tape makes more of a visual impact, and is truly unmissable!

    

That’s how we pack things, and we find it works well. It is worth considering double-boxing when posting abroad, although weight and size constraints can make this very difficult. As a general guide, two slightly tighter fitting boxes might still be better than one box if you have to choose, but keeping parcels under 2kg and within the size constraints (click here for details) can be challenging!

Finding packaging materials can be difficult - especially if you need much quantity. Websites like The Packaging Store can come in handy - with a full choice of packaging including materials tailored for antiques.

Postage Methods

The only other area to consider is how to post your item. In the UK, we always use Royal Mail Special Delivery for items under 2kg, as the parcels are handled separately from other mail and the service guarantees a pre-1pm delivery the next day. For items that are over 2kg or are too large for Special Delivery, we use Parcelforce 48 and have found this to be a good service too.

Overseas postage methods vary according to the value and destination, but for items with some value, Royal Mail International Signed For is usually the best choice. Strangely, we often get quicker deliveries with this service than with Royal Mail’s Airsure service, even though Airsure is meant to be the premier service…

It seems that the new owners of Poole Pottery will shortly be closing down Poole’s famous Sopers Lane factory, leaving the pottery without a new home. Their search for a new location seems more focused on finding retail space than manufacturing facilities - which makes sense now that it has been revealed that much of the manufacturing will be moved to Lifestyle’s other recent acquisition, Royal Stafford in Stoke.

More details in this article.

“There’s an unspoken rule in trading antiques that it is the buyer’s responsibility to determine the authenticity of the pieces.”

This interesting quote came not from the Delboy Trotter manual of market trading, but from an article I happened across on the ChinaDaily.com website, reporting the successful prosecution of an antique coin dealer for selling 110 counterfeit coins, which he claimed had been unearthed at a construction site.

His three year jail sentence has generated something of an uproar amongst his fellow antique dealers, who it seems are not usually held to the same ethical standards as other industries - it seems that the scale and bare-faced cheek of the offence were this dealer’s downfall.

Closer To Home

While reputable dealers in the UK take pride in being able to vouch for the quality and authenticity of their stock, fakes are not unknown, as too are honest mistakes and ambiguous labelling by dealers and auction houses.

Take the seemingly innocuous phrase “Marked as….” for example. Carelessly read, it may be interpreted as “This object is…” but the reality is that it may mean completely the opposite - “This object is pretending to be….”

An example that comes to mind is Troika Pottery. At more than one auction house in Yorkshire and the Midlands I have seen objects described as “Marked as Troika” - when they are quite obviously not. In one case, several genuine pieces of Troika sat alongside two very ordinary studio pottery vases that had simply had a Troika-style mark applied to their base. Yet the catalogue suggested that all pieces were Troika.

Look at it this way - if I stuck a Mercedes badge on my Ford, could I sell it as a Mercedes?

What Should You Do?

The reality is that whatever the legal niceties of a situation, buyers should beware:

• Research what you are buying
• Ask questions - particularly of a dealer
• Look out for inexplicable anomalies or cagey wording in items’ descriptions
• If you aren’t convinced, walk away, or just buy it anyway - but only as an aesthetically-pleasing object, nothing more.

I used Troika as an example as it is currently popular, yet new enough for it not to be all that widely understood. A couple of developments over the last year also seem to me to have increased the likelihood of fakes appearing:

1. Authentic unpainted pieces have been being sold, cheaply and in quite high volumes, through auction houses and on eBay. These are genuine, but for some reason were never decorated. I imagine it would be relatively simple for someone with the right skills to decorate these and pass them off as originals.
2. A selection of the original moulds, sold to a private collector when the pottery closed in 1983, have been made available for sale. While there is every possibility these will go to a good home, they may also not do, and one imagines could be used to produce new pieces, to be sold as apparent bargains at car boots, etc..

To learn more about Troika pottery, feel free to browse our wide selection of genuine Troika Pottery and Troika Marks.

When Is Charlotte Rhead Not Charlotte Rhead?

More subtle variations of this problem also exist - one notable example is that of Charlotte Rhead and Crown Ducal. It appears that various moulds and various trademarks were both separately, and legitimately, sold to the same person - who then commenced manufacturing items from the moulds, and adding the trademarks he had purchased to them. This does of course create a thoroughly misleading impression of the provenance of these modern pieces.

These links have more information, and are worth a visit:

• Crown Ducal by Charlotte Rhead - Reproductions
• Beware the Moulds - an article about what has happened
• SylvaC fakes - Some information on SylvaC fakes and reproductions

Remember - always feel free to buy a dubious item for the pleasure it gives you, but make sure you know what you are looking at, and pay accordingly.

I've read many descriptions of how pottery is made - from preparing the clay to the final firing, but I have not often seen it illustrated as one process. Until today! This slideshow, on the Nicholas Mosse Pottery site (an American pottery) shows the month-long journey of a hand-thrown jug, from its inception to its final firing. It is well worth a look, especially if like me, your pottery-making knowledge has mostly been derived from words, not real life!