Catch them If you can…
Some people find art pottery unusual or consider it to be simply about painted pots. Yet the UK's art pottery collections are a window into society and culture. Any subject – such as history, fashion, horticulture or even high octane sport – can be explored through surface design and even shape at Moorcroft. We have created designs that tie our art pottery to subjects such as hot air balloons, fairies, dogs and cats, wild animals, safari animals and scenery, mermaids, folk tales, rare and popular florals, strange fungi, awe-inspiring landscapes, cityscapes and seascapes and much more. In short, apart from the absurd and the vulgar, the Moorcroft periscopes pop up just about anywhere.
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Of course, as with Harpy, Moorcroft designs also take us into the fantastical – into the very heart of myths and legends and other worlds hidden in our oceans and rivers. Vicky's Harpy, a wind spirit of the type found in Homer’s Odyssey where Harpy's are winds that carry people away, holds oceanic blues and white froth from fierce waves in the colours of the monster itself, leaving the sea dark and ominous. With sheer panache, this concept has been championed by Nicola Slaney in her design Another World, and later, with Autre Monde, French for another world. Both of the latter designs are firm favourites of the Moorcroft Chairman, a fine carp and sea fisherman in his time. Anglers love to fish for carp as most species of carp provide anglers with an exciting challenge. Due to their size and strength; specimen carp put up quite a fight when hooked, which makes them even more rewarding once successfully landed. Perhaps that is why Hugh Edwards became a keen collector – the challenge of reeling in a good catch!
Sea fishing and river fishing might not be as different as sea and river fish, but they’re different regardless. We know that fishing seems like an activity that should be very straightforward, but it really isn’t. For first-timers specifically, and to this day, I recall my Dad’s gasps of exasperation of my own attempts, it is difficult and can get a little frustrating at times. Often, this is because you are applying the wrong technique for the wrong kind of fishing or simply, like me, just useless! There’s just so much that’s different: the fish, the tide, the depth, the flow—and more. These things are much the same in Moorcroft artistry, going beyond the with green colours and hues used for rivers and blues and aquamarines for sea visions - attention must also be given to the depth of the life that lies beneath and the conditions relating to the natural elements themselves. It is quite remarkable therefore, that Nicola, and later, Emma Bossons in her rather humorous design, Catch Me If You Can, used a blue palette for their river and pond designs.
Released today, will be the Number One in the edition of Another World, a very strong design carrying a limited edition of 50. Now this Number One is certainly quite a catch and a statement piece to boot, standing at 18 inches high. I recall running the Moorcroft stand at a Gardeners World Event at Saffron Walden – not only was the design the most talked about by passing attendees, but it also caught the eye of a garden designer whose featured garden at the show held a rather impressive pond, created in no more than two days for the show.
Broad florals, geometric patterns and landscapes are firm favourites in Nicola’s sketchbook. Birds and fish are not. Rarely does the designer delve into the depths. Whilst fish or aquatic designs by Nicola are a rarity, fish designs on a prestige vase, (and a brand-new shape of prestige vase at that,) are even rarer. For its very first appearance, this 81/18 vase is canvas to a wonderful flurry of water, fins and flowers in an imaginary subaquatic scene. ‘I used one of my favourite colour palettes for this design- it is similar to the colours used in Talwin,’ Nicola explained. Another World, as the name would suggest, visits the tranquil spaces of our underwater planet, featuring a gentle giant of the water, covered in glistening scales. So there we have it. Nicola changed what is usually a predominantly green palette to the reds, blacks and blues of Talwin Morris.
Above, Talwin Morris books at Hill House
Talwin Morris was an architect and designer, and his work can be admired at the Hill House alongside the designs of his contemporaries Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. Indeed, upon entering Hill House, one of the first rooms to greet you is Walter Blackie’s personal sanctuary: the library. It is not only the beauty of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s interior design scheme that will encourage you to linger here a little longer but also the stunning collection of books. The library is home to an array of beautiful Blackie & Son (and their subsidiary company The Gresham Publishing Co) books.
Many of the books in the Hill House library were designed by Talwin Morris, who was the head of Blackie & Son’s Art Department from 1893–1909 as book covers became ornamental in this period. Whilst there are indeed book covers in Hill House of the smoking-room green variety, Nicola went for a palette that she also knew had excited the Moorcroft collectors in her Talwin range and would also fit well alongside collectors pieces.
Pictured at Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, the Moorcroft Talwin Prestige vase (RM3)
In truth, blue, black and red hues and shades in interiors often trump other colours – perhaps because, as a combination, they are so sophisticated. 2024 sees another shade of blue - Benjamin Moore's Blue Nova, as a standout shade. We have superimposed Autre Monde into this new tone. Indeed, whilst I truly love this new shade of interior blue, I would also love to remove the notice board, books and the industrial -casserole dish and replace with Another World and a few Talwin Morris books!
Above, Moorcroft's Autre Monde against new interior paint colour for 2024, Blue Nova
Catch Me If You Can, is not only a true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars’ worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor, but is also the name of probably the most difficult tubelining design of all time – the master of which is available to purchase at the time of writing this article. Indeed, this is not something even Abagnale could forge without significant training from one of our own tubeliners!
The paw hidden among a forest of colourful water plants and flowers, may well have belonged to cat I once owned, named Tiger. One night, I was lying in my bed looking up at the open skylight above me when Tiger leaped down on me with a huge, blood-orange carp in his mouth, glowing in the moonlight. These Japanese fighting fish are awesome in size and amidst the frenzy of the jump, my mind still spins when I look into the swirl of Emma’s colourful plants and flowers, fins and tales, spinning lilies and a hovering dragonfly! To ensure a little calm near the base of the vase, the designer has, fortuitously, added colourful foliage in amber and red tones or are they carp tails? Nonetheless, the black cat can do nothing other than acknowledge defeat.
