What are your Favourite Collectables?
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Art Deco is geometric, angular and streamlined and the colours are usually bold and dramatic. The Art Deco style was applied to decorative art as well as architecture. Art Deco is associated with luxury, style and high living.
When it comes to collecting I’ve often noticed that what once were utilitarian objects and present in just about every house have now become highly desirable and are often used for display. Pie funnels were once an everyday object and while they are still being used today they are also very collectable.
In Britain in the early 1950s there were few attractive ceramics available, the best stuff was being exported to boost the British economy after the war. Many ceramic factories had been commissioned for war work and were not yet restored to their pre-war standard. Many of the designers were working for Scandinavian or American companies who had continued production throughout the 1940s.
The British public had been starved of new decorative ceramics after the war and were beginning to demand more freedom of choice and they wanted contemporary patterns. In the USA in the 1930s Russel Wright designed tableware with with organic and freeform shapes, named ‘American Modern’ and these pieces were sold in the 1950s. In Sweden Stig Lindberg was a prolific ceramic designer. There was a influence of art and technology on design in the 1950s and Dali motifs as well as sputniks and stars could be seen. Colours were fresh and bright and were often mixed with stark black and white.
West Cornwall is one of the principal centres of the arts, having been home to the Newlyn school of painters, and such contemporary artists as John Miller. It was also the home of Newlyn Copper and in the 20th century sculptors of the calibre of Dame Barbara Hepworth and the father of British studio pottery, Bernard Leach.
This area was also home to four small but highly collectable studio potteries, culminating in a period in the 1970s when they were all situated in the small fishing town of Newlyn. They were Celtic, Leaper, Tremaen and Troika. Whilst the market for Troika and Celtic is fairly well established nowadays, prices for the two lesser known potteries of Tremaen and Leaper can vary considerably in price.