Malachite was a stunning range, launched in 1960, in the very early days of the Portmeirion Pottery.
The backstamp still mentions Gray’s pottery.
Production of the range was both problematic and expensive.
Although fully backstamped, this footed cake stand misses the gold border.
Malachite was produced until 1966. It was only produced in limited numbers, and my collection is very limited indeed.
In 1994 the newly started Portmeirion Studio produced the Lemon Grove range, specially commissioned by Harrods.
The range includes traditional Portmeirion shapes, all with the same handpainted Lemon Grove motif:
I think Lemon Grove is very freshly coloured, ideal for the summer:
The lemon also occurs on another handpainted plate, but it probably is a trial:
There are Portmeirion mugs in many shapes and sizes
Here are the breakfast mugs:
They are the Bearded Tit, the Redpoll, the Robin, the Sedge Warbler, the Goldfinch and the Blue Tit. On the backside of the mugs are the same unnamed birds as on the egg cups:
Besides the breakfast mugs there are the 4 inch straight sided mugs:
Here are the Goldfinch, the Redpoll, the Blue Tit, the Sedge Warbler, the Linnet and the Robin.
On the back either the unnamed birds or smaller sized pictures of the usual birds, such as the Marsh Tit.
These are the Birds of America, a set of four, also occurring on plates. This is the Bobwhite Quail:
the Ruffed Grouse
the Pintail
and the Mallard
The Birds of America mugs had a feather on the backside
Birds of Britain also had bell beakers:
Here are the Greenfinch, the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, the Redpoll and the Goldfinch. On the backside the unnamed birds:
This is the only Delft Mug in my collection, with the Goldfinch
The new Botanic Birds range also has large 4 inch mugs: The Scarlet Tanager, Lesser Goldfinch, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Chickadee, Western Bluebird and Baltimore Oriole:
With their extra flower on the inside they really look great!
New Portmeirion ware comes in boxes.
Early Portmeirion boxes and packaging had drawings by Susan Williams-Ellis:
These boxes are rather tatty, but then they are about 40 years old.
Later boxes and packaging had a variety of colours:
Planters with advice as to which plants they were suitable for:
Shell dishes
The bathroom series had a set consisting of a soapdish and a beaker, beautifully packaged:
There were beautiful platters in half open boxes:
there were comports, the boxes suggesting all sorts of treats for festive occasions:
as well as suggestions for a party pile-up:
like this?
Lasagna dishes and flan dishes
Planters and small china boxes
Sweet dishes
Tea pot stands
Vases in all shapes and sizes
More and newer boxes to follow later
Most Portmeirion is pottery, earthenware. In 1994 Portmeirion launched Portmeirion China, a completely new china range in four different designs:
As can be seen, the Portmeirion China shapes were very different from the ones in Botanic Garden (drum shapes) and Pomona (romantic shapes).
THE WELSH WILD FLOWERS:
The Welsh flowers depicted here were drawn by Angharad Menna, one of Susan’s daughters. Here are four bread and butter plates:
My favourite flower is the Sea Aster, on the plates
and on the coffee pot:
There are dinner plates
and large soup plates in my far from complete collection:
In the Welsh Wild Flowers there is also a Speedwell:
Backstamp
THE LADIES FLOWER GARDEN:
From The Ladies Flower Garden by Mrs Loudon, published 1842. There are six different plates, five of which can be seen here:
A small dish:
There are mugs:
cups and saucers:
and dishes:
This is an earthenware dinnerplate with the Botanic Garden leafed border:
and this is an earthenware saladplate with the Botanic Garden leafed border:
Backstamp
THE SUMMER GARLAND:
Although not mentioned in this Collectors Letter, Summer Garland was also part of the Portmeirion China range. It consists of a mix of Botanic Garden motifs, woven into a wonderful garland of flowers:
Backstamp
ANCESTRAL JEWELS
This range was designed by Susan’s daughter Anwyll Cooper-Willis, and was inspired by ancient Celtic jewelry. Here is my one and only Ancestral Jewel:
Backstamp
Moonstone Gold was only produced for a few months in 1994, I have never seen any.
The Pomona range has always had lovely oatmeal bowls, such as the Hoary Morning Apple bowl:
The Hazel Nut:
The Biggeraux Cherry and the Late Duke Cherry:
The Ingestrie Pippin:
The Teinton Squash Pear:
The White Dutch Currant and the Red Currant:
The L’Imperatrice Plum and the Reine Claude Plum:
The Wild Blackberry both with and without leaf border :
The Wild Blackberry, the Roman Apricot, the Lane’s Prince Albert Apple, the Shropshire Damson, the Elsanta Strawberry:
The Shropshire Damson both with and without leaf border:
The Kiwi is the latest motif for Pomona in 2014:
What about raspberries?
Pomona was launched in 1982, with pictures from the English Pomological Magazine from the early 1800s.
They are hand-coloured engravings with very vivid colours.
The motifs on these six 7 inch plates are: Grimwoods Ruyal George, the Ingestrie Pippin, the Hazel Nut, Wilmots Early Red, L’Imperatrice Plum and the White Dutch Currant.
The White Dutch Currant was later replaced by the Red Currant, the image looks mirrored, the currants are now red:
The blue L Imperatrice Plum was replaced by the Reine Claude Plum:
The Biggeraux Cherry looked unripe and was therefore replaced by the Late Duke Cherry.
The plates here have differently sized motifs:
The Hazel Nut is an all time favourite:
The Ingestrie Pippin
The Hoary Morning Apple
The Teinton Squash Pear
The Princess of Orange Pear
The Wild Blackberry
Later motifs on plates with a leaf border are: the Lane’s Prince Albert Apple, the Roman Apricot, the Kiwi, the Shropshire Damson and the Elsanta Strawberry.
Some of these can also be found on no border plates:
Where Did You Get That Hat was a popular song in the beginning of the twentieth century. Susan used the title for a range of sepia prints of ladies sporting dashing hats. The range was launched in 1970:
Including a coffee set with the iconic coffee pot:
Other items in the range were small cups:
dishes:
plates:
storage jars in various sizes:
cruet sets:
and all sorts of pots:
Another range of Sepia prints was Idols of the Stage:
In this range there were also various items, such as this gin bottle:
The images are of actors from an age long past:
They look great on a cruet set.
This actress would also look very well in the Where did you get that hat range.
The silent movies really come to life.
I keep on looking for items from this range.
Thomas Bewick (1753 – 1828) was an English engraver and natural history author. He is best known for A History of British Birds.
Illustrations from this book, and his History of Quadrupeds, were used for the Country Life and Sporting Scenes ranges.
Kirkham’s, the pottery taken over by Susan Williams Ellis, had already used Bewick illustrations. In the sixties Susan put them on her new cilinder shapes:
The hunting, shooting and fishing images were the most popular, apparently. And don’t they look well!
There were beakers and cups in all sizes, such as these small cups:
beakers:
4 inch coffee mugs:
a huge drumshaped mug that has seen better days:
and jumbo cups, which usually had large black saucers:
there were storage jars:
dishes:
and even rectangular boxes:
Here is a Bewick print in the Country Life range:
Mostly the Sporting Scenes are found in black end white, but there were also blue, grey, brown and yellow colours.
The Portmeirion Pomona range was launched in 1980, but before that Portmeirion had produced pottery with fruit motifs. This pottery usually has a mustard coloured backstamp.
Examples of this range are the 4 inch mug and the four oatmeals. These fruit motifs can still be found, there are six different fruits.
I have another set of cups and saucers with early fruit motifs, purchased on a Swedish flea market and then sold to me by a Swedish china collector:
They are lovely pictures:
They make a festive teatable
Even the butterflies love the fruit motifs
I have never seen these fruit motifs before, either on Portmeirion or any other pottery. But they add a touch of happiness to any teatable
