Winchcombe Pottery

Picked up this lovely little vase today in the same antique shop as the Abuja tankard I posted earlier, am I correct in thinking that the inclusion of the dot on the mark means this was thrown by Ray Finch? It certainly has a Finchy feel to it.

NaomiM wrote:I think there’s some doubt. Finch’s P extends further above the W, and the dot is clearer. This might just be a bit of clay or glaze on the surface.

I tend to agree. The dot is usually more obvious, and further down from the W. Compare with the many examples here:

https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t12595-ray-finch

Notwithstanding, it's still a lovely vase.

A stoneware covered jar By Eddie Hopkins.

via Phil Oliver's website

Tragically, Eddie Hopkins died from complications after injuries received during the flooding of Winchcombe earlier in 2007. He will be greatly missed.

A goblet with an unusual internal sprigged mark.

A good well potted vase probably by a talented student

Another one of those casseroles, with a partly obscured mark.

A large terracotta tankard with wheatears.

Here is a gorgeous 8" Winchcombe jug with a super glaze. It only has the Winchcombe mark so who made it is anyone's guess but it so reminds me of a Ray Finch jug which is a full 12" tall and marked with Finch's dot.





Ad here is the Ray Finch jug this so reminds me of....

The Winchcombe Pottery is and was fundamentally a pottery that by and large produced functional pots in a limited number of patterns for use, this being one of them.

Most of the pots that Ray made during his many years at the pottery would have just had the pottery mark and sold as such.

This might or might not have been made by Ray and no one is ever going to know.

Thanks for your input Philpot & Studio Pots. Whoever made the 8" jug was clearly heavily influenced by Ray Finch as the similarity in style & pattern to the 12" jug is plain to see.

I appreciate I'm never going to know who actually threw the jug but that does not lessen my appreciation of the piece, I think it's a stunner.

Regards,

Jay.

All the potters at this time would have either trained under Ray or his son, who trained under Ray. They were making standard ranges of wares that were all the same shapes but this a small number of surface decorations. This decoration is one of the glaze/decoration ranges and so there would have been thousands of jugs of this size and with this decoration made over the years, long with all of other function wares with the same pattern.

I just picked up these 4 slightly speckled sage green Sidney Tustin cups from a well known auction site.

At only 8cm tall they're a little smaller than I'd prefer but for a matching set of pretty much identical cups, they were quite the bargain I think. Each cup is marked with both the Winchcombe mark and the Sidney Tustin 'S.T' mark.  For £36 (including p+p) I think I got a pretty good deal.

From what I can gather, Sidney retired in 1978 (which happens to be the year I left school) but as for when he made them, I wouldn't have a clue.




Regards,

Jay.

A Sidney Tustin stoneware lidded pot.