This stunning tableware earthernware bowl was made by Shorter & Son (UK)
Shorter & Son (Stoke On Trent) were in operation 1906 ~ 1964 and produced an incredibly wide range of artistic, decorative tableware and pottery (including Toby Jugs) with the artwork designs being heavily influenced by Clarice Cliff, a very talented artist and designer, who later became Colley Shorter's (one of the owners) wife in 1940.
SHORTER & SON - Fruit Bowl
Made in Stoke-On-Trent, England
Thin walled earthernware
Circa 1930's ~ 1950's
We personally feel this particular piece most likely left the works either in the late 1930's or late 1940's as the works were preoccupied (and restricted by the British Government) with the WWII effort in the early ~ mid 1940's
Hand decorated
High gloss Honey Yellow glazing
A typical but a stunning example of their Water Lily range of decorative pieces produced by Shorter & Son at the time. Of course they also produced a myriad of other designs, including Art Deco and their pieces are becoming more and more difficult to find, particularly those in good condition.
The colours are bold, the design is stunning and depicts a large Olive Green leaf with Water Lillies at each "end" where the tab handles are.
But, for us at least, we (actually my wife) didn't just collect things because "Oh! that's a nice bowl!) as often there is symbolism involved and this bowl is no exception. Water Lillies are often used to represent purity, majesty, new birth or resurrection because in real life, Water Lillies have the ability to emerge from the water. Nice huh?
Only the top side area is hand decorated, the sides of the bowl have a Yellow/Honey glaze applied prior to firing, not clear.
DIMENSIONS:
Bowl "mouth" 9 inches diameter (230mm) x 2.5" (70mm) deep
Side tab handles extend the total length of the bowl (in one direction) to 11" or 280mm
In comparison to the multitude of other beautiful fruits that we have, this could be described as a "medium" size bowl although slightly larger than the other Shorter bowl we have HERE
WEIGHT: 760g
Made from a thin ceramic, reasonably light for it's size
BACKSTAMP MARKINGS
Below is a photograph of the actual backstamp, very simple text based and with no graphics
No impressions have been made into the ceramic material
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
NO chips
NO fleabites
NO cracks
Crazing is often an issue with both Shorter & Sons and other similar products such as those from Carltonware .... unlike the other Shorter & Son bowl that is also looking for a new, caring home, this bowl DOES have quite visible crazing ON THE UNDERSIDE ONLY
Actually when the ceramic has dried after a "wet test" (sitting in pure water for 10 minutes) is when the crazing is most visibly evident. After 24~48 hours, the water that has seeped into the clay via the cracks in the glaze, largely has dried up meaning the crazing is less visible as the clay slowly dries.
I repeat though ... the topside decoration is completely unaffected by crazing.
