Scraps Of Mind

TG Green - Cornishware

In an earlier post I wrote about my TG Green Streamline collection. I thought it might be time to introduce my other TG Green collection: Cornish Kitchen Ware.

We covered a brief history of the TG Green Pottery in the previous post so I won’t go over that again. But the Cornishware story is interesting in its own right.

Supposedly named by a TG Green Regional Sales Representative who was inspired by ‘the blue of the Cornish skies and the white crests of the waves’, Cornishware is the most famous of all the TG Green lines. It is the definitive blue and white kitchen ware pottery of the 20th century (Willow pattern doesn’t really count as it is primarily used on dinner wares rather than than kitchen ware). When the popularity of Cornish Kitchen Wares took off it spawned dozens of ‘me too’ lines from competing manufacturers: Kleenware, Fowlerware, Stanley Ware, Bretby Ware, to name a few. But none of them really captured the market like Cornishware.

Blue banded white wares had been around since the mid-Victorian years and there’s no record of who at TG Green came up with the idea of turning this type of pottery into a modern range of kitchen wares. It is believed that the idea was driven by the need to give the TG Green lathe turners employment in the mid 1920s during the post WWI recession. A Pottery with a background of social conscience. Gotta love that!

The Cornishware pieces are fired, coated with slip which is allowed to dry and then coated with the blue slip. When this is dry the pieces are mounted on a lathe and bands of blue slip are turned off to reveal the white body beneath. Then of course they are fired again. This also gives the pieces their texture as they have a very definitive edge to them; not achievable by just painting the stripes onto the body. This hand lathe process is still carried out today in the modern Cornishware pieces.

Over the years Cornishware has been made in several colourways: yellow (Sunlit Yellow), buff (Cornish Gold), red, black, green and teal. My collection focuses on the original blue range with pieces mainly from the 1930s and 40s; although I have a teapot from the 1960s when the range was redesigned by Judith Onions in an effort to modernise it and revitalise its market appeal.

I’m especially fond of the flour and sugar shakers which still have their original rubber stoppers in the bottom. And the sauce boat (front left) which is hard to come by. I still buy the occasional piece of Cornish ware (the pepper and salt shakers were a fairly recent addition to the collection) but, to be honest, I’ve currently shifted my collecting focus more to the Streamline collection.

Other related posts:

TG Green Streamline
Toby Jugs - Will the real Toby Philpot please stand up
Confessions of a Collectaholic

A Stroll Down Lilliput Lane

Time to write about another of my collections.

This time it’s miniature cottages. There are a number of firms making these nowadays, but the ones I collect are from Lilliput Lane. Apart from having a very cute name, they’re one of the longest running firms in this market. Lilliput Lane was founded in 1982 by David Tate who, with his wife Sandra, moved up to the beautiful Lake District of England, bought the picturesque little Rose Cottage (model on the right) and began designing and making these miniatures. The cottages are all authentic examples of vernacular architecture from all around the British Isles. They also have collections from other countries but the British cottages are by far the most popular.

The models are cast from Amorphite, which is a compound David Tate invented, composed of finely ground gypsum with other substances added to it. I just love the exquisite detail that the modellers and painters bring to these little houses. You can display them from any angle and there’s always something interesting to see.

On a trip back to England in the 90s I visited the manufacturing works where they are made. It was really interesting to see the process and the level of detail and hand work that’s involved. The original cottage where the Tates lived, now a museum for past pieces, is set in beautiful gardens. The model of Rose Cottage can only be purchased by visitors to Lilliput Lane and is not available in shops or by mail order. And in a magnificent piece of reverse engineering they have built a full size replica of one of their early cottages, Honeysuckle Cottage, nearby to house the showroom and cafe.

I began collecting these models in 1988 on a trip back to the UK. I’ve bought a few in Australia but they’re really expensive here so mostly I buy some each time I return to England. They’re one of my ‘must have’ holiday souvenirs and my collection currently stands at 37.

I had so much difficulty in selecting a few of the cottages from my collection for this photograph, because I just love them all and choosing was really hard. The Secret Garden (back left with the purple slate roof) is definitely one of my favourites as it was one of my original pieces from that first trip. And I love the Victorian Gothic architecture of the house as well as the intricate detail of the walled garden. The other large one on the right is called Tudor Court and is a model of a Tudor ’shopping mall’. It’s another early one and a favourite.

Many of the models are of houses that really exist, not just ‘in the style of’ designs. The tiny gray stone Bridge House is one such example. I’ve been to this little two roomed 16th century cottage in Ambleside, Cumbria. It is the tiniest of cottages, straddling the river, with one room sitting on top of the other and reached by an outside stone staircase, which must have been a nightmare to climb in the freezing blustery Northern winters. But apparently a family with 6 children once lived in it! This one is a bit extra special as it’s autographed by David Tate when he came on a visit to Australia.

Other related posts:

Walk Softly, and Carry a Large Hatpin
On the Scent - Vintage Perfume Bottles
Confessions of a Collectaholic

Walk softly and carry a long hatpin

The Age of the Hatpin (ie. that which secures a lady’s hat to her head, not a badge that is worn on a hat) lasted from approx. 1850-1930. Its invention during the Victorian years revolutionised women’s fashion which previously had revolved around the bonnet style of headgear; relying on ribbons to keep it secure. Remember that up until the First World War no lady would dream of being seen out of doors without a hat on. The hat was as compulsory a piece of clothing as shoes.

The extravagant design of hats in the last half of the 19th century combined with the hairstyles, which often involved extra rolls of padding with the hair combed over them, resulted in many hatpins from this era being up to 12″ in length. A formidable weapon in the hands of an angry suffragette! There were even laws enacted which governed the length of hatpins, how they could be worn and restrictions covering wearing them on public transport.

Hatpins were an important accessory in a woman’s wardrobe, so naturally they were designed as beautiful pieces of jewelery. These early hatpins are eagerly sought after by collectors and are hideously expensive. Unfortunately I don’t have any of these gems in my collection.

I started collecting hatpins so I could have something relatively inexpensive to buy when I went cruising Antique Centres if I wasn’t going to buy a piece of porcelain or a perfume bottle for one of my other collections. I didn’t realise that, just like every other collectable, hatpins have a top end of the market side too for the older, fancier ones. So my collection is all early 20th Century examples extending to the 1930s. I try to avoid the modern reproductions that are quite popular at the moment, made with beads, although in the early days I did inadvertently buy a couple.

Hatpin holders are also very collectable and are usually made of porcelain or silver and beautifully decorated. I only have the hand painted Nippon one shown here. But I do love the intricate gold painting on it, which the photo doesn’t really do justice to..

For anyone who is interested in finding out more about vintage hatpins I suggest getting hold of any books on the subject by Lillian Baker.

Other related posts:

A Stroll Down Lilliput Lane
Toby Jugs - Will the real Toby Philpot please stand up
Confessions of a Collectaholic

T G Green Streamline

Time for another rummage behind the scenes of one of my collections.

Back in 1846 Thomas Goodwin Green, son of a Lincolnshire corn merchant, had a fancy for a lady by the name of Mary Tenniel (sister of Sir John Tenniel the famous illustrator of such books as Alice in Wonderland). He asked her to marry him but got knocked back. So in true romantic spirit, he took his broken heart and sailed for Australia, where he made his fortune as a builder. Fifteen years later he had word that Mary had changed her mind so he returned home in true prodigal fashion, wooed and won his sweetheart and they were married.

Whilst on honeymoon, Green met Henry Wileman who owned the Pottery Works in Church Gresley, Derbyshire. Having sold up his business in Australia, Green was looking for something to do now he was back in the Old Dart so he bought the pottery from Wileman. After all, how hard could it be?

Fortunately he had bought a well run operation and being a strong-minded and determined man he soon made his new business a great success; in the process, setting up a pottery dynasty that lasted until 1964, when it went the way of so many family potteries, and went into receivership. The company assets were purchased by larger outfits who continued trading under the TG Green name.

TG Green expanded into the kitchen and table wares market. And during the first half of the 20th century the pottery produced a number of popular designs. The most famous is Cornishware. I will be writing a post on Cornishware at a later date but my favourite TG Green range is the Streamline kitchen and table ware. This was characterised by a cream coloured body formed into a distinctive rounded shape with a series of green stripes piped onto to it. The stripes are raised on the surface of the pieces making them very tactile. The range is huge and was in production from the mid-1930s to about 1950, But because it was never as popular as the famous Cornishware, Streamline pieces are harder to find, especially the more unusual items.

One of my favourite pieces is the biscuit barrel. I have only ever seen one of its kind but unfortunately the lid on mine smashed. The tall vase-looking piece at the back right is actually an egg beater! As with most of these items, the metal beater thingy has been lost on the rugged journey of life. My most recent acquisition is the rolling pin. These are hard to come by as, being prone to rolling off the table, most never made it to old age.

I only collect the kitchen ware Streamline, leaving the dinner ware stuff alone. Even I have to draw the line somewhere.

Other related posts:

TG Green Cornishware
Toby Jugs - Will the real Toby Philpot please stand up
Confessions of a Collectaholic

H&K Tunstall - The Delicious Dozen

Well I’m overdue for a post, having joined the rest of the victims of the Christmas Scramble described in my earlier post. So I thought I’d write about my collection of H&K Tunstall porcelain in my ongoing collections category series.

Hollinshead and Kirkham, originally of Burslem in Staffordshire, moved their pottery works to nearby Tunstall in 1890. They catered mainly for the middle class end of the market and, in the main, produced a range of conservatively designed dinner ware. However in the economic slump following the First World War the company needed to do something to address their falling sales. Designer Harold Growcott was their White Knight.

Growcott came up with a range of designs for hand painted porcelain that tapped into the growing interest in all things Art Deco. The designs featured an abstract painted background of two or more colours on which bold fruit or floral designs were hand painted. The result was bold and exciting.

The Delicious Dozen as it came to be known was actually a range of 14 designs, but let’s not be pedantic about a good nickname. The designs were applied to many of the existing pre-war shapes, to give them a new lease of life, as well as some fresh new shapes more in keeping with the Art Deco style. Due to its similar subject matter and large bold painting style H&K has also been dubbed ‘Poor Man’s Moorcroft’ but if the prices I have had to pay for some of my pieces are anything to go by, that’s not a title that fits today’s collecting market.

I’ve photographed some of my favourite pieces from my collection for your viewing pleasure. The name of the fruit design on the all brown background is Luscious, the square platter is the Autumn design and the little floral jug in the back is the Primula design. I particularly love the platters and the cake slice as I use them for special occasions and it’s a great feeling to actually utilise these old pieces.

Other related posts:

The Beauty of Belleek Porcelain
On the Scent - Vintage Perfume Bottles
Confessions of a Collectaholic