Twenty-five years ago this year, in December 1983, Cornwall's Troika Pottery finally closed its doors. Falling orders and money problems had been dogging the pottery for some years before they finally succumbed - a sign perhaps of the changing popular tastes and economic recession of the early 1980s.
The Troika story began twenty years earlier, in 1963. Benny Sirota and Leslie Illsley founded the Troika Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. The young pair had a passionate desire to reshape the way people thought about studio pottery and were determined to create pottery for its aesthetic merit alone - without regard to potential function.
This approach put them at odds with the established studio pottery movement of the time, epitomised by Bernard Leach. Studio pottery, it was said, should be functional and appealing. It should also be hand thrown - an approach that the Troika founders discarded almost from day one.
The approach developed by Sirota and Illsley was to hand-throw a shape and then use it to create a mould. By doing this, dozens or even hundreds of examples of a given shape could quickly and efficiently be created. Each of these pieces was then painted and glazed by hand to create a unique finished product.
This approach was particularly successful with Troika's rough-textured wares and enabled the pottery to achieve considerable production volumes without sacrificing the unique, hand-finished nature of each piece - key to its art pottery identity. This approach proved commercially successful, too, with the pottery winning large orders from fashionable London stores as well as developing a solid tourist trade in the West Country.
Troika Pottery textured pieces - Coffin vase, Rectangular vase & Cube vase
These textured pieces remain extremely popular with collectors today - with shapes ranging from the smaller marmalade, coffin and cube shapes through to the larger and more scarce double base, rectangular and large wheel vases. Rarer still are designs such as the mask, wall pocket and anvil vase - and there are many other shapes that are virtually never seen.
Troika's smooth-glazed wares - typically covered in a black, white or blue glaze and sparsely decorated - were originally made in smaller volumes than the textured pieces. Although artistically successful, they were less so commercially. More difficult to fire successfully, smooth-glazed wares suffered from higher levels of kiln damage and were eventually taken out of production. They are much scarcer today than textured pieces.
Troika Pottery smooth glazed pieces - Early Trident mark Slab vase & St Ives Cube vase
So what's next for Troika? After a period in the collecting wilderness in the 80s and 90s, the collectable market for Troika has become very strongly established. We've been selling Troika for more than five years and in that time have seen a definite maturity come to the market - so here's to another 25 years of collecting Troika!
Best Wishes,
Perfect Pieces
Newsletters
Here you'll find a list of our past newsletters. They feature information on different potteries, some of our featured stock and information on antique fairs and general news from the antique and collectors world!
Happy reading!
- Happy Christmas from Perfect Pieces!
- Christmas Offers & New Stock!
- Late Summer Offers & New Stock Updates...
- A Visit To York & More Special Offers!
- Summer Is Here! Summer Antique Fairs, Special Offers & More!
- Summer Is Approaching - Antique Fairs, New Stock & A Special Offer!
- Springtime & Bunnies - Antique Fairs & New Stock!
- Special Offers, Antique Fairs & New Stock!
- Spring Antique Fairs & Rabbits Galore!
- Happy New Year!
- Merry Christmas From Perfect Pieces!
- Unique & Collectable Christmas Gift Ideas!
- Will The Sunshine Hold For September?! Antique Fairs & PenDelfin Rabbits
- Summer Continues...Retired PenDelfin & Troika Pottery Galore
- Summer Sunshine At A Norfolk Antique Fair
- Summer Sunshine & Cornish Treats!
- PenDelfin Rabbits Galore!
- Troika Pottery, PenDelfin Rabbits & Puzzling Pottery Marks!
- Are We Going To Have Snow This Easter?!
- Happy Valentine's Day!
- Welcome To 2013!
- Happy Christmas From Perfect Pieces!
- Countdown To Christmas!
- Troika Pottery - A Popular Cornish Collectable!
- Denby Pottery
- Antique Fairs, New Stock & More Rain!
- Antique Fairs, Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, New Stock & Lots Of Rain!
- Summertime News & More Pottery Marks!
- Happy Easter from Perfect Pieces!
- Spring Fairs & Mothering Sunday - It's March!
- February News - Antique Fairs, New Stock & PenDelfin Rabbits!
- Happy New Year - Welcome To 2012!
- Merry Christmas From Perfect Pieces!
- Make This Year A Collectable Christmas With Perfect Pieces!
- Happy Halloween - Halloween Treats From Perfect Pieces!
- Perfect Pieces On The TV!
- Summer Holiday Reads - Antique & Collectable Book Reviews!
- Antiques Worldwide This Summer!
- Sunshine & Gales Calls For Blustery Antique Fairs!
- Royal Weddings & Easter Eggs!
- Steaming Around York
- Bruges: Chocolates & Curiosities
- Welcome to 2011. Doesn’t time seem to fly?!
- Merry Christmas From Perfect Pieces
- Burra Bears - A Unique Piece Of Shetland
- Lord Nelson Memorabilia And Collectables
- Steaming Into Autumn
- Antiques In The Summertime
- Pottering Around Antique Centres
- Father's Day Gift Ideas 2010
- A Flying Visit To Limoges
- Spring Is Here - Time To Get Out More!
- West Country Potteries
- February, Fairs & Valentine's Day
- Only Two Weeks Until Christmas...
- Collectables Don’t Have To Be Clutter
- Seeing Double? Not Necessarily...
- Errington Reay: A Real, Live, British Pottery
- Books, Books & More Books...
- Identifying Pottery Marks - Where to Start?
- Learning About Antiques & Collectables
- Happy New Year and welcome to 2009!
- Perfect Pieces Christmas Sale & Shipping Dates
- Thanks, Jean: A Look Back At 51 Years of PenDelfin
- A Visit to Newark International Antiques Fair
- Antique & Collectors Fairs: Are They Worth Visiting?
- Carlton Ware at the NEC
- A Potted History: Charlotte Rhead
- Troika Pottery: Stronger Today than 25 Years Ago?
- Springtime from a Tyneside pottery
- Poole Pottery: Phoenix from the Ashes?
- Daytime TV, Retro Glass & Bamboo...
- Merry Christmas from Perfect Pieces!
- The Enduring Appeal of the Supernatural - Still Popular Today?
- Understanding Pottery Marks
- Three Techniques: Many Styles - A look at three important decorating techniques
- Children's Wares For Grown-Up Collectors
- A Tale From The Lakes
- The Cornish Effect
- From Buyouts To Bunnies...
- From Switzerland to Stoke: Crown Devon's European Import
- Pottery Marks Guide and Pottery Valuation & Appraisal Service
- A Lustre Alternative - Matt Glazed Wares, Art Deco Style
- Truda Carter - Poole Pottery's Greatest Art Deco Designer?
- Odd Ones Out - Three unusual pieces from Wedgwood, Pendelfin and Troika
- Antique Pottery Price Guide Goes Live, and a look at three contrasting 1930s pieces.
- Focus on Carlton Ware - One Shape, Many Patterns
- Wedgwood: The legacy of Keith Murray
- Wonderful Wedgwood Lustre, and a couple of true British Collectables
- A rare Crown Devon Musical, some 1930s Maling lustre, and an early Poole Jug
- A look at the enduring appeal of Poole Pottery's 1950s Freeform Range