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After a three stage moulding process from the original design, every figure is individually cast using liquid clay – known as slip – into plaster of paris working moulds. Using a top secret recipe and equally hush-hush timings excess clay is poured away and the moulds are carefully opened to reveal the figure inside. After a period drying the pieces are “fettled”, trimmed and sponged to remove seams, rough areas and generally provide a perfect surface for painting. Some pieces are made using more than one mould so this where any heads, limbs, ears or even tails will be “stuck” on.

This stage is one of the unseen but critical and highly skillful elements of our work. It requires a deft but delicate touch and a lot of attention to detail. One of the pictures on the left shows what happens if you’re too firm with the trimming knife!

The pieces are fired for the first time in the kiln to become “bisque” and are then inspected and hand-glazed by our talented decorating team. Every decorator then trims, signs, “backstamps” and prepares the glazed surface for painting. We use hand brushwork directly onto the powder-dry glaze before it’s been fired, which means the surface is incredibly absorbent and there’s little room for mistakes! The decorators tend to start with hand-painting the face if possible as they say it conjours the spirit of the individual piece and helps them focus on what they are depicting. You may have already noticed that the colours we paint with change, sometimes dramatically, during the final “glost” firing so the decorating team are vigilant not to mix colours up.

Once painted the figures are carefully packed into the kiln. They are picked up by hand, taken to the kiln and fitted snugly together, all without smudging the painting. A delicate 3d jigsaw.

Then…we wait. About 36 hours, before the kiln doors are cool enough to open and reveal the treasure inside. A bit of Alchemy and a lot of industrial Artistry.

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This key figure in our Canterbury Tales Collection is originally modelled on an early portrait belonging to the Sackville family at Knowle in Kent.  Sculptor and Ceramicist Tony Bennett created Chaucer as a larger figure than the rest of the figures in this series, visualising him  as “The Puppet Master” pulling the strings of his Canterbury Tales Pilgrims.

Geoffrey Chaucer was an important civil servant at the court of King Richard 11 and was responsible for the building of Westminster Hall – a great medieval building still used for the Lying in State of the Monarch and  some notable Statesmen.

Chaucer is also decorated within the same tight colour palette of the Canterbury Collection, cobalt, terracotta, warm earthy brown and soft green.

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Rye Pottery’s hand-made & painted Wife of Bath was the very first pottery figure we designed based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. As, arguably, the most famous pilgrim from Chaucer’s incredible work, she continues to be one of our most popular characters in the collection. We love the fact she’s one of the best-known characters in English literature – and she’s female. She’s the perfect unique gift for the literature medieval buff in your life.

A worthy woman all her life, what’s more

She’d had five husbands, all at the Church door

Apart from other company in youth,

No need just now to speak of that, forsooth.

The Wife of Bath is the only pottery figure in the series modelled by sculptor/painter Gordon Davies and was originally conceived as a one-off character for Canterbury Cathedral’s gift shop. In her early days she was hand-painted only in Cobalt Blue & White, but today her decoration now ties in with the range’s medieval colour palette of Cobalt Blue, Terracotta, earthy Browns and a soft Sherwood Forest Green.

Take a look at the short video below to watch our talented team painting her using free-hand brushwork.

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The Miller was a chap of sixteen stone,

A great stout fellow big in brawn and bone.

A wrangler and a buffoon, he had a store

Of tavern stories, filthy in the main.

The Infamous Miller, or The Dirty Miller as some of us call him, is famous to a certain generation as compulsory English Literature reading. We’ve worked hard to really bring Chaucer’s tale to life here and as a result this really is one of our most characterful figures.

He is depicted here warts and all, with a palette using mainly terracotta and cobalt blue – even his bagpipes are painstakingly hand-painted in detail to match Chaucer’s many references to all things pig and porcine in the Miller’s Tale.

We’ve also tried to be true to Chaucer’s description of the Miller’s poor old horse, which is a far cry from many of the other fine looking beasts in this series and is clearly working hard to carry his burden.

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Chaucer mentions the specific Guilds in his prologue: They had the capital and revenue,/Besides their wives declared it was their due./And if they did not think so, then they ought;/To be called Madam is a glorious thought.

Chaucer does not actually tell us that the Guildsmen had taken their wives with them on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury, but he does describe them rather well. So we have chosen to assume they went too, as it allows us the fun of having more than just 2 women in our Collection.

The Guildsman’s Wife

To be called madam is a glorious thought,

And so is going to church and being seen

Having your mantle carried like a queen 

The Guildsman’s Wife is shown wearing a similarly patterned coral dress to her husband’s tunic, along with a n incredibly decorative wimple head dress, that is somewhat hard for our decorator’s to paint.

Click here to see The Guildsman himself.

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Chaucer mentions the specific Guilds in the prologue of The Canterbury Tales;

The Guildsman’s knife was tricked out with brass,

But wrought with purest silver, which avouches

A like display on girdles and on pouches.

Guilds were extremely powerful and important in medieval England; becoming a Member of your trade guild marked both you and your family as worthy of attention.

Once we realised that the Guilds gave us great scope for our decorating skills, we were able to enjoy working with an array of patterned tunics, alternative fabrics and particularly decorative hats.

The Guildsman is clothed in soft terracotta both patterned and braided,  and ties in perfectly with his wife. While his pleated, draped hat adds gravitas to his whole costume.

Click here to see The Guildsman’s Wife.

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Chaucer mentions the specific Guilds in his prologue, and when we first introduced a generic Guildsman and his Wife we realised there was huge scope for us to work with each of the named Guilds allowing us an exciting choice of costume especially for the wives. As it says in the Prologue: They had the capital and revenue,/Besides their wives declared it was their due./And if they did not think so, then they ought;/To be called Madam is a glorious thought.

THE CARPENTER’S WIFE

And so is going to church and being seen

Having your mantle carried like a queen.

The Carpenter’s Wife has a particularly grand, decorated mantle (or cloak), which she clearly felt befitted her status as a Guildsman’s wife.  Her gown, an elegant, soft blue, has a rather fine series of coral buttons down the front of the bodice that id designed to tie in with the ornate clasp on her cloak as well as her headdress.

Click here to see her husband The Carpenter.

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Chaucer mentions the specific Guilds in his prologue, and when we first introduced a generic Guildsman and his Wife we realised there was huge scope for us to work with each of the named Guilds allowing us an exciting choice of costume especially for the wives. As it says in the Prologue: They had the capital and revenue,/Besides their wives declared it was their due./And if they did not think so, then they ought;/To be called Madam is a glorious thought.

THE CARPENTER

Their wisdom would have justified a plan

To make each one of them an alderman.

The Carpenter is sporting a particularly jaunty hat, which was inspired during a visit to a museum in Perugia, Italy  where we loved a series of medieval tapestries. We found so many ideas for decoration that we filled up an entire sketch book with hasty scribbles. His tunic is in our soft russet brown , carefully matching his Wife’s ample cloak.

Click here to see The Carpenter’s charming wife.

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This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax,

Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax.

His chin no beard had harboured, nor would harbour,

Smoother than ever chin was left by barber.

The Pardoner with his rather swarthy partner The Summoner,  gave us the only chance to include a new colour: his lank greasy Yellow hair. Though might say we’ve been too kind to him!

To offset some of the more solid coloured tunics we also  gave him a striped finish which makes him a little more feminine as well as  showing off our decorators’ skills – painting straight lines as if they are fabric is no mean feat.

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