Fruit for Our Time

Fruit for our time.

From the juicy mulberries, grapes, figs and apricots found in Emma Bossons’ Queens Choice to the cheerful lemons on our barrel mugs, and exotic pineapples found in Art Deco motifs, fruit does bring a fresh and lively aesthetic to Moorcroft. Indeed, fruit designs offer endless creativity, allowing painters to experiment with bold colour palettes and intricate details.  It was not surprising then, that to challenge the contestants in the Moorcroft episode of The Great Pottery Throw Down a few years ago, fruit was the chosen subject and proved a hard task master. The blending of the metallic oxide shades, and the layer upon layer needed to create the rich vibrancy of colour is challenging for all but the most skilled of Moorcroft artists.

 View Queens Choice  

Significant discounts do make seconds very appetising, yet it is trials that offer an insight into the fruits of Moorcroft yet to come. You may notice an Orange Wine  trial. Today, Orange wine is so named due to the colour rather than its contents - these are white wines made using the same methods as red wine (the skins are left on, producing tannins and leaving the wine spicier, more textural and drier than most). Do not be confused. Emma explores the blossom and fruit in a new trial design which harks back to one of Jane Austen’s letters, where the author clearly had standards for the wine she drank too, criticizing the choice of “orange wine” being offered.

The pleasures of friendship, of unreserved conversation, of similarity of taste and opinions will make good amends for orange wine.

Letter to Cassandra (1808-06-20) [Letters of Jane Austen — Brabourne Edition]

In Austen’s time, grape wine was drunk predominantly by the wealthy, if only because most wine was imported and cost a pretty penny even when it hadn’t been smuggled into the country. A very large percentage of the wine brought into the United Kingdom during the Peninsular War was smuggled in, as most of the wine-producing areas of the world were under Napoleon's control. No doubt Jane’s brother, Frederick, with his eminent naval career, would know some stories about how the ruling classes came to enjoy a tipple. It is likely then, that the orange wine to which Jane refers, was fruit wine. As is the case today for craft brewers, wine was made from all kinds of fruit, including elderberry, strawberry, and even orange. Whilst Jane Austen herself mentions orange wine, we are not sure if anyone has discovered the recipe yet! Good amends for Emma’s own orange wine design is certainly not needed, where the folds in the fruit pack a vibrant punch.

View Trials on Offer today, 2nd April.

With some Moorcroft designs trials, you may also find old vintages redesigned for our time. Indeed, many of you may have noticed another recent William Morris revival, not only taking place in interior design but also with respect to his designs within high street fashion. Rachel Bishop has had one design approved that holds base elements of Morris’s Strawberry Thief and this time, showcases the beauty of blossom. Many of you will remember her 1996 Strawberry Thief design introduced during the last 1990s Morris revival of Arts & Crafts design. At that time Rachel added a touch of richness with Moorcroft’s midnight blue ground and there was a strawberry thief at play.

If truth be known, should you leave the flowers on when attending to your own strawberries growing at home, you will still get strawberries, but these may well be hidden from any audacious strawberry thief for one simple reason - they might not be very big and could be deformed due to lack of pollination. If you take the flowers off, the plant's energy will go into producing bigger and better fruit for the coming months. Originally the Morris fabric design c1883, an enduring classic with its symmetry and intricate detail of both strawberries and thrushes, held chalky shades of green, blue and pink on a slate grey background with fresh strawberries. Now, the senior Moorcroft designer chooses to focus on the fruit itself, offset against a mulberry ground and no thief at play. The strawberries are shown in micro detail, with the focus now on gradients of ripeness and organic foliage. This is a fortunate coincidence as a leading paint supplier has predicted, rich reds featuring brown and purple tones – think burgundy, mulberry and wine – are set to be a strong colour direction for 2025 - although it is unlikely that contemporary interiors were on the designer's mind. Her focus has always been very similiar to that of William Morris - being true to the natural world. William Moorcroft himself was recorded within The Potteries Gazette as stating that to take colour out of the natural realm was as 'offensive as painting the bark of a tree.' So, there we have it – fruit for our time, made, as always, in the Arts and Crafts tradition.