Tag Archives: Susan Williams Ellis

Sporting Scenes

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Thomas Bewick (1753 – 1828) was an English engraver and natural history author. He is best known for A History of British Birds.

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Illustrations from this book, and his History of Quadrupeds, were used for the Country Life and Sporting Scenes ranges.

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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:

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The hunting, shooting and fishing images were the most popular, apparently. And don’t they look well!

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There were beakers and cups in all sizes, such as these small cups:

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beakers:

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4 inch coffee mugs:

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a huge drumshaped mug that has seen better days:

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and jumbo cups, which usually  had large black saucers:

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there were storage jars:

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dishes:

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and even rectangular boxes:

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Here is a Bewick print in the Country Life range:

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Mostly the Sporting Scenes are found in black end white, but there were also blue, grey, brown  and yellow colours.

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The Enchanted Garden

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In 1997 Portmeirion wrote in their Collectors Letter: “Looking at the Portmeirion Potteries range, one clear absence was something for children. The next thought was: could we entice some fairies into the Botanic Garden? Well, thinking about fairies, the obvious book was one which belonged to Susan’s Grandmother and which Susan had loved so much when she was small.”

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“Here were fairies in their natural habitat, real true fairies, not saccharine 20th century fairies, there were some by no means good and sweet, who enjoyed mischief and were not necessarily well-behaved.”

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“This book, illustrated by Richard Doyle, a nephew of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1870 and used a new woodblock method, rather than hand watercolouring to colour plates.”

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“We are so pleased with the result,” Portmeirion wrote, “a pattern of which children will not get bored, interesting pictures with always something new to be found in them.”

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“There are four sets in beautiful full coloured boxes, just the thing for new additions to the family, and good boys and girls on birthdays, and at Christmas.”

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The book had served as an inspiration to Susan in the early sixties, when some illustrations had been engraved for use on nurseryware:

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Here is the illustration from the book, with an old plate and a new cup:

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In spite of the enthusiastic language at the launch, the range only lasted from 1997 till 1999. A pity, it is still a special range, with all the fairies and animals, and it is fun to read the book, and to look at the pictures and then see the pictures back on the cups and dishes, such as here:

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Ofcourse we now have the Very Hungry Caterpillar, but maybe it is time for a new Portmeirion childrens range with some new mischievous fairies.

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Portmeirionlore: Botanic Garden Dinner Plates

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The Botanic Garden range appeared in 1972. First there was a coffee set and a few months later Portmeirion proudly presented the dinner service. Here are the original six dinner plates: Mexican Lily, Blue Passion Flower, Venus Fly Trap, Manchineel Tree, African Daisy and Yellow Crown Imperial.

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All early plates come with the beautiful first Botanic Garden backstamp:

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They were a magnificent set of dinnerplates:

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The African Daisy, here seen with some African Daisies in the background, was the first flower that Susan Williams-Ellis put on a dinner plate for the Botanic Garden dinner service.

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The Mexican Lily, with the dark butterflies.

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The Manchineel Tree , with the dark greens and browns.

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The Blue Passion Flower, a Botanic Garden classic.

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The majestic Yellow Crown Imperial.

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The Venus Fly Trap with the crawly insects.

There were all sorts of variations in motifs and lettering.  This is the Yellow Crown Imperial, with and without the green border. The top one has the newer lettering.

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The African Daisy had an early version with brown butterflies. Later versions show the yellow and green butterflies,  a dragonfly was also added.

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The Mexican Lily also had changes in butterflies. There are even three different butterfly variations, from the early dark butterflies, then the spectacular pink butterflies and finally the greenish one, matching with the bulb. As with all the plates, the lettering changed a few times.

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There were sets of six dinner plates and apart from that  there was one 13 inch platter. It had the Blue Passion Flower motif with three large flowers instead of two on the dinner plates:

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A later version of this 13 inch platter had an extra butterfly:

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From here my pictures of the dinner plates are not all in chronological order. Hera are: Royal Highness,  Flowered Chrysanthemum, African Lily, Honeysuckle, Shrubby Peony and Christmas Rose.

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The Christmas Rose has always been one of my favourites:

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There are two versions of the Honeysuckle, the older one with sturdy brown colours, and a newer pink version. There seems to be a mix up in the Latin name as well.

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In the following picture the Honeysuckle, Virgin’s Bower, Rhododendron, Sweet Pea, Asiatic Magnolia, Lily Flowered Azalea

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The Sweet Pea, with some Sweet Peas:

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The Asiatic Magnolia also has two versions, one with a blue butterfly:

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Portmeirion keep producing new motifs, such as the Foxglove, Sunflower, Poppy (new in 2014), Hydrangea (new in in 2012, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Botanic Garden), Pink Parrot Tulip and Arborea

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The Hydrangea plates are among my favourites:

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Exotic Botanic Garden is another recent range, featuring the Hawaiian Hibiscus, Moth Orchid, White Waterlily,Red Ginger, Bird of Paradise, Dragonfly and Winged Passion Flower. They really are an exotic lot of plates, very colourful, with lovely flowers.

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A dinnerplate made for the Korean market looks very much like the Hawaiian Hibiscus, it features the Rose of Sharon:

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This is an older motif, the White Gum Cistus, rarely seen on dinnerplates.

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The White Gum Cistus was originally seen on soup plates and bread and butter plates. There is a double version that occurs on early salad plates:

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At Portmeirion they are very good at what-iffing, here are some trials with salad plate motifs on dinner plates, the Fuchsia,  Ivy Leafed Cyclamen, Belladonna Lily, Blue Iris and Dog Rose.

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When Susan Williams-Ellis died in 2007 the company honoured her life with the return of one of the earlier motifs, the Meadow Saffron, on a dinner plate.

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Here is a rare dinnerplate withe the Botanic Garden border and a Ladies Flower Garden motif.

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In 1980 the Mexican Lily appeared on a specially made plate:

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There is a version with green lettering and one with pink letters:

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The Collectors Club was presented with a hand-painted version of the Christmas Rose in 1993. There is no longer a collectors club now, and  no new Collectors Letters have appeared for a long time, which is a pity.

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The Year 2000 and the new millennium  were celebrated by a new plate with the Millennium Rose:

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Portmeirion designed a series of four Birds of America. My plates have the Botanic Garden leafed border:

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They are the Mallard, the Pintail, the Bobwhite Quail and the Ruffed Grouse.

I am not quite sure whether the Botanic Birds are part of the Botanic Garden range, or whether they should be classified as Birds of Britain. Anyway, I put the dinner plates here. They are the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Bluebird,  and Scarlet Tanager. Lovely birds, on dinnerplates with the Botanic Garden Border.

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And there’s always this one:

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