Wilkinson

another miniature

a peanut vase with Opal decoration

Opal apple

small,apple shaped vase with fish

Hi
I love the Oriflamme. Years ago I met John Butlers daughter Joy Couper. I went to her house and there in the living room was her Christening bowl he made for her.

Interestingly when Butler was hounded out of Wilkinsons he went to work as Art Director at Wood and Sons. he sadly died in 1935 and Susie Cooper took his young daughter Joy under her wing.

In the second world war joy did some secret war work-painting the ends of small tree trunks and veg for the war effort

interesting,I read about the move to Wood & Son but have not seen any of his designs from that period

Hi Dan
According to my reserach he was only at Wood and Sons for less than five years as he was knocked over by a car in 1935.
andrew

ps I have seen somewhere an Oriflamme catalogue from 1910

yer they issued a thin long catalogue with the blue flag on the front-Im sure I am right and have not made a mistake

sounds very interesting Andy,would you be able to access the catalogue again?

andywooders wrote: I love the Oriflamme. Years ago I met John Butlers daughter Joy Couper. I went to her house and there in the living room was her Christening bowl he made for her.

Interestingly when Butler was hounded out of Wilkinsons he went to work as Art Director at Wood and Sons. he sadly died in 1935 and Susie Cooper took his young daughter Joy under her wing.

In the second world war joy did some secret war work-painting the ends of small tree trunks and veg for the war effort

Hi Andy, Not sure if I am using the 'reply' function correctly but ....... to introduce myself I am Joy Couper's son (John Couper's grandson). Are there any sources of info relating to John Butler? (I have a lot of recollections etc relating to my mother, particularly her war service but that is not probably not relevant to this forum) also her time with Susie Cooper. Are there any sources of info relating to John Butler? Thanks, Ian

Welcome Ian,
I have searched the internet several times for such info and would love to hear from you if you ever find any

yes they used a stamp depicting a flag over the word oriflamme

hi ta for that
that confirms that Idid see a catalogue then-Im sure it was in Leeds Art Library- a few years ago they had a cull of books and Alan bennett wrote to the local paper-leeds City Council had this idea if a rare book was looked at for over a year-get rid off-a shocking thing for a city to say
shame on them

Hi dantheman, it's been a while since I've visited this site, interesting that you think Oriflamme is better than original Tibetan, I would have to disagree - I was the winning bidder on that particular vase!! Tibetan had many more firings than Oriflamme, and the detailing is much finer and labour intensive and therefore more expensive at the time. Rubaiyat was also much more superior to Oriflamme and again is comparitively rarer, but don't forget Oriflamme was in production for nearly 20 years.
Oriflamme was a shared patent between Colley Shorter and John Butler, cotton wool was applied to a wet pot and aerographed with colour and fired this was repeated for each colour, the area for the fish if applicable was masked off and added last. Gilt butterflies,bugs,cobwebs and dragons were added last on glaze,as were the seagulls I have on 2 vases in enamels. Some years ago there was an example with an eagle flying amongst trees on ebay but was too expensive for me at the time.
Another expensive range was the 'Oriental Ladies' by Fred Ridgeway which all appear to be different - I have a pair of vases and the 2 ladies are very different.
I will add some images at a later date to the Wilkinson thread.......
happy hunting Nik

thanks for the info Nik,I have only seen pictures of the Tibetan range and nothing of Rubaiyat or Oriental ladies,are there any displayed in museums or galleries?

Uh! afraid not they are that seldom seem, John Butler is unfortunately ignored due to the fame (or infamy) of Clarice Cliff. A true example of collectors paying for a name, it is my personal belief that CC created very little truly original work.....probabley one of the major reasons John Butler disliked her so much. I will have a go at attaching some images for you......

A.J.Wilkinson Rubaiyat Iris by John Butler 13" plaque signed in yellow enamel on the front if you look closely

Nik the collector wrote:

which range is this please Nik?

The range is Rubaiyat, the vase on the left is the most common found (but not often), the vase in the centre is only the 2nd I know to have Iris flowers in the design, the vase on the right has Crocus flowers and I know of one other in Australia.

Reverse view of Rubaiyat vases.

Oriental ladies - don't know the pattern name but they date from 1919 and are always signed by Fred Ridgeway who worked in John Butler's studio.

Tibetan

Tibetan top of vase - unusual in blue.

Tibetan most often seen in orange.