By Louise Irvine

The WMODA collection features many striking figures made by studio potters during the 1920s and 30s. Creative partnerships in the Chelsea area of London have been discussed previously, and we are now exploring the rest of London and beyond. Pottery statuettes remained highly sought after by collectors in the 1930s, and many sculptors worked for prominent manufacturers, including Royal Doulton and Royal Worcester.

Jessamine S. Bray and Sybil V. Williams

Jessamine Bray and Sybil Williams both trained with Charles Vyse when he taught sculpture at Camberwell School of Art. They established their Dulwich Pottery in South London in 1926 and collaborated on creating striking ceramic figures and vases. One of Miss Bray’s Breton market women was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, and they showed their work at several London galleries. They were also commissioned to produce some figurines for Royal Worcester.

Dorothy and Freda Doughty

The most prolific modelers for Royal Worcester in the 1930s were Freda and Dorothy Doughty, who specialized in figures of children and birds. Freda ran children’s modeling classes and their house in Kent was full of cheerful boys and girls. She frequently used them as live models for the ceramic figurines which were fired in her own kiln. Her figure of a Boy with Parakeet and a girl in  Grandmother’s Dress were so popular that they helped Worcester through the recession in the 1930s.  Freda was responsible for more than 100 child studies and Dorothy created almost as many bird models for Royal Worcester.

Phoebe and Harold Stabler

Phoebe Stabler worked in many different media, including ceramics, alongside her husband Harold in Upper Mall, Hammersmith in London. Phoebe attended art school in Liverpool and moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art. She married Harold, a stone carver, metalworker, and art teacher in 1906. Phoebe modeled glazed pottery figures, which she initially fired in her own kiln, but soon, many of her designs were produced under license by leading manufacturers. She must have been a shrewd businesswoman because the same designs were produced by Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester, and the Poole Pottery.

After World War One, Harold and Phoebe joined forces as Carter, Stabler and Adams at the Poole Pottery and collaborated on monumental ceramic sculptures for war memorials and gardens. Phoebe also revived figurative designs for the Ashstead Potters, founded in 1923 by Sir Lawrence Weaver to employ ex-servicemen in Surrey.

Kathleen Goodwin

Kathleen Goodwin was born and educated in the Potteries art schools. In 1923, one of her figures won a Royal Society of Arts bronze medal and brought about an introduction to Wedgwood. They commissioned her to model figures of dancers with her friends at the local dancing school, posing in their roles.

Joyce Bidder and Daisy Borne

Miss Bidder studied sculpture with Stanley Nicholson Babb, who made some stoneware figures for Doulton’s Lambeth Pottery in the early 1900s, and that is probably when she developed her love of ceramics. She worked in many media, including bronze and marble, and exhibited her work regularly at the Royal Academy from 1932 onwards.  She shared a studio in Wimbledon, London with fellow artist Daisy Borne and they worked together into their nineties.

Thank you to Marshall Colman, Robert Prescott-Walker, Terry Cartlidge and David Lawrence for their informative research on this topic.

Read about Creative Partnerships in Chelsea

Creative Partnerships – Chelsea Potters | Wiener Museum