Moorcroft
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For the town in Wyoming named Moorcroft, see Moorcroft, Wyoming
Moorcroft is a British pottery manufacturer based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire which was founded by William Moorcroft.
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[edit] History
In 1897 Stoke-on-Trent pottery manufacturer James Macintyre & Co. Ltd. established a design studio within its works headed by 24 year-old William Moorcroft, a skilled exponent of art nouveau design. Moorcroft won a gold medal at the St. Louis International Exhibition in 1904, and with his increasing fame insisted in adding his own initials or signature as artist to the pottery that he was designing and overseeing the production of. This resulted in inceasing friction with his employers, culminating in him resigning in 1912 to open his own factory nearby - taking with him many of his colleagues and all of his designs.
The Moorcroft factory produced an extensive array of moderately-priced domestic table-ware items as well as its famous tubelined, hand-painted art pottery. His reputation was enhanced when Queen Mary, a keen collector of his works, granted him a royal appointment in 1928. Shortly before the death of William in 1945, his eldest son, Walter Moorcroft took control of the pottery business and continued to develop it, with another royal appointment being awarded in 1946.
Between its founding and its leadership under Walter Moorcroft, the company had been financed in collaboration with the famous London store, Liberty. The Liberty store's interest was bought out by Moorcroft in 1962.
Rising fuel and labour costs brought Moorcroft with its highly labour-intesive techniques into finnacial difficulties and in an attempt to mass produce Moorcroft pottery, part of the company was sold to the Roper Brothers in 1984. This attempt was unsuccessful and, in 1986, Roper Brothers' share was resold to business partners Hugh Edwards and Richard Dennis. In 1992, Dennis and his pottery designer wife, Sally, left the company, leaving the Edwards family as sole owners (remaining so in 2008).
Walter Moorcroft retired as the director of design in 1987, but continued to contribute until his last design, 'Rock of Ages', was launched in 1999. In 1993, 24 year-old Rachel Bishop joined the company as its senior designer. By claiming the original establishment of the Macintyre studio under William Moorcroft in 1897 as its own founding date, in 1997 Moorcroft celebrated its centenary. During this year it established a new Moorcroft Design Studio and employed several talented designers to extend the range of its products.
[edit] Moorcroft Pottery
While employed by Macintyre, William Moorcroft had developed its Aurelian Ware range of high-Victorian pottery, which was mostly hand-painted ware in bold red, blue and gold colours. By the late 1890s he had introduced Florian Ware with strong art nouveau influences, produced by the technique of slipcasting or tubelining. This technique has been used in almost all of Moorcroft's art pottery ever since and is now its main distinction from mass-produced pottery. Both father and son also experimented with high-temperature flambé techniques producing high glaze with vibrant colour.
Later Walter Moorcroft designs reflect the cleaner, simpler appearance preferred during that era. Moorcroft Design Studio patterns show strong influences from the founding days of William Moorcroft coupled with the improvements in colouring techniques of more recent years. Aimed at the luxury end of the collector and gift markets, they are generally in the form of such products as display plates, vases, pin dishes, lamp-bases and jars of varying shape and size. They have a high secondary market value.
[edit] References
- Atterbury, P. Moorcroft, B. (1993) Moorcroft: A Guide to Moorcroft Pottery 1897-1993., Richard Dennis. ISBN 0-903685-33-7
- Street, Fraser 'Moorcroft: A New Dawn' (2006). W M Publications. ISBN 0-9528913-3-6
