By Louise Irvine
The most prestigious pottery ever made by the Moorcroft studio in Stoke-on-Trent can be seen at WMODA. In the early 1900s, William Moorcroft made some very large pieces for practical purposes, such as umbrella stands. In recent times, the modern Moorcroft studio has created a succession of breathtaking designs to mark important occasions. The vast size and weight of these prestige pieces present considerable challenges.
William Moorcroft’s largest pieces were designed for Victorian entrance halls to hold umbrellas and walking canes. His Hazledene design, displayed in the Art Nouveau gallery, is a very rare example that stands 25 inches tall. It was made especially for Shreve & Company in San Francisco, which was founded in 1894 and is considered the oldest commercial establishment in the city. Their eleven-story building was opened a month before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and amazingly survived. Moorcroft’s design of stylized trees was first produced for James Macintyre & Company while he was their art director. It was a very successful design at Liberty’s of London, where it became known as Hazledene. Moorcroft continued producing this pattern for various retailers when he opened his factory in 1913.
To mark the 100th anniversary of Moorcroft’s original factory in 2013, studio artist Kerry Goodwin designed a massive vase standing 27 inches tall, the largest ever made by the factory. It depicts the famous walk in 1913 when William Moorcroft led 34 staff members from James Macintyre’s closed art department in Burslem to his new state-of-the-art factory in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent. “The Walk” was recreated during the company’s celebration weekend when the current staff in period costume were joined by Moorcroft collectors from around the world. Kerry has incorporated iconic bottle kilns and symbolic flowers bursting into bloom at William Moorcroft’s feet as he leaves behind piles of abandoned pottery and approaches his new factory, which is still operational today.
To celebrate the new Millennium, Nicola Slaney started working on the spectacular Jerusalem vase in 1999, and it took her six months to draw her design on the gigantic pot, which stands 27 inches tall. The Jerusalem vase represents the holy sites of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, including the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The limited edition of 50 Jerusalem vases was sold out within six months of its launch.
Moorcroft Centenary
In 1987, after the retirement of Walter Moorcroft, Sally Tuffin took over as Moorcroft’s Art Director. She revived an enormous 27-inch vase shape discovered in Moorcroft’s mold store and reimagined her spectacular Carp and Finches designs for this impressive scale. Rachel Bishop also chose this shape for her stunning Poppy design to mark the Moorcroft Centenary in 1997, which celebrated the start of William Moorcroft’s career as a designer. Walter Moorcroft’s last design, After the Storm, was posthumously applied to a prestige vase to commemorate this occasion.
Moorcroft’s best-selling, longest-running pattern, Queen’s Choice, was reimagined as a prestige vase by Emma Bossons. Every fruit mentioned by Titania, the fairy queen, in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night's Dream, is featured in Emma's abundant design. Emma joined Moorcroft in 1996 at the young age of 20 and rapidly became Moorcroft’s most distinguished designer. Her work was acknowledged during Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebrations, and she is the youngest female member of the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. Her designs account for 40% of Moorcroft’s sales, and Moorcroft’s director has described her as a phenomenon.
Emma has worked on many prestigious designs during her career, including a dramatic design for the Lord Mayor’s Show in London. In 2011, the parade marked the election of David Wootton, the son of a baker in Stoke-on-Trent, as the 684th Lord Mayor of London and Emma was asked to design the posters for the event. She translated her design into a remarkable prestige vase that captures the pomp and pageantry of the event, including the Lord Mayer’s golden stagecoach and the dragon symbol of the city of London.
Moorcroft vases are slip-cast in plaster of Paris molds, and the weight of the gigantic prestige vases requires special lifting equipment installed at the factory to facilitate handling. Only the most experienced tube-liners are qualified to work on the prestige designs using a tool like a cake icer. Once dry, senior artists expertly hand-paint the vases on the unfired clay body. After glazing and firing, the colors on these marvelous pieces glow like precious stones.
