Rye Pottery

VIVAT REGINA! – The 60th Anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation

Hand-painted Rye Pottery Commemorative ware to mark the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation Click to enlarge

This year to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation we have produced a very limited number of hand-made and hand-painted bowls and tankards.

June Woolley, who started work as a 15 year-old in 1953 and still comes in voluntarily to act as archivist and layout magician for us, painted some of the pots and bowls while Julie Catt, who came out of retirement to help us, has also produced one or two pieces not least the striking 12-inch bowl featured here.

We are planning to make a small transfer mug for William and Kate’s new baby when he or she finally makes an appearance; the timing looks as if it should coincide with the special Coronation weekend of celebration in mid July, which means we will hope to manage two Royal windows through the summer.

Close-up of the intricate, hand-painted crown – Click to enlarge

Searching for display material to help decorate our Shop Window here in Rye has produced all sorts of royal memorabilia. Tarquin, who was still in the Navy back in 1953, won 2 tickets to watch the whole procession from a very comfortable spot within Admiralty Arch.

All of which means we’ve had several newspapers from the period stashed away as well as 2 copies of the Official Programme. We’ve also saved a wonderfully evocative 1953 edition of British Vogue.

Do come and have a look at our window if you’re passing.

Rye Pottery on BBC Radio

Rye Pottery will be on local radio tomorrow Thursday May 31st.  We have been asked to join in a telephone chat about The Diamond Jubilee helping small Sussex firms in these difficult times. We should be live on BBC Radio Sussex 95.3 FM or 105 FM and also on DAB at about 8.40am.

It is always fun to be involved,  but a bit nerve racking doing live pieces. Last year we did a live interview outside the Pottery as the reception was better, but the local train went through at the same time, which meant all the cars were stuck in the road behind us waiting to move while the Rail Crossing gates were shut!

More about our Jubilee pieces

CORONATION DESIGN TANKARDS 1 pt & 1/2 pt by RYE POTTERY

May seems to be rushing past and still we cannot catch up on our Diamond Jubilee orders!   We are making the little transfer  tankards as fast as we can, not helped by Bank Holidays of course when no kilns are firing !  We have been digging into our archives and have been pleased to find pictures of the colourways used to celebrate the Coronation back in 1953.  So here are 2 sizes of hand painted  Jubilee Tankards in the Coronation  Pattern – the large is approx 1 pint size and the smaller 1/2 pint.

We have used the same  charmingly cheerful colourway to paint  both 8 inch and  10 inch  diameter plates, not to mention  the centre piece of our Diamond Jubilee display~ a large hand thrown bowl~ in the same striking colourway.

Even more Diamond Jubilee.

COBALT BLUE JUBILEE TANKARDS

We are working very hard trying to produce lots of our popular little tankards, but as with all very special things it is quite a process to have one ready to display for sale in the shop.

All the tankards are hand thrown on the wheel by Steve Russeell, who works to carefully pre-set measurements, but of course with anything totally hand made there must always be room for a little variation in width and height!

This clay mug is then bisque fired and brought down to our decorating workshop in Rye, where Julie Catt glazes it,  then paints the bands around the top of the mug and puts the dash onto the handle then it is back into the kiln again.

Finally Betty Sayer  having printed up a  folder full of transfers will apply the transfers carefully, including the Rye Pottery backstamp and it is ready for the final firing in the  kiln.  So as you will appreciate we really do sell a Diamond Jubilee  Tankard which is both hand made and hand decorated here in Rye.

DIAMOND JUBILEE

HAND PAINTED DIAMOND JUBILEE PLATE

Although the first week end of June will be the time for the  main Diamond Jubilee celebrations, February 6th is the actual date of Her Majesty’s accession in 1952.  We have been working hard to have some special pieces ready, we had already sold our first handpainted plate sample to a regular customer who is involved in various civic celebrations, fortunately we have painted a  few more which we have now fired!

We are planning to  have a display in our shop  of some of our Commemorative Jubilee pottery which we will hope to change as and when  new pieces appear!  Our current problem is that somehow we have managed to only put one of the 2 relevant dates on the first trial batch of little tankards. At least this is a fault we can easily put right,  just need to stay awake while putting the transfer onto the tankard;  unlike the plate we painted for the Queen and Prince Philip’s Silver Wedding in 1972 when we managed to write PRICNCE (sic) instead of prince and did not notice it until it was fired and ready to go on display!

STOP PRESS  correctly dated tankards with the right dates just  starting to come through the system.

Rye Pottery gears up to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

This year we are, in total contrast to last year’s Royal Wedding, all geared up and raring to go with new Rye Pottery designs to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

We have planned and painted a sample of our hand-painted large plate, as well as designing the artwork for the much-loved little transfer tankards and small dishes.  We hope to add some one-off pots throughout the next 6 months, which will be sold on a strictly first come first served basis.

Rye Pottery have produced Royal Commemoratives for over 100 years. Hastings Museum has a 1902 jug made for Edward VII  and we’ve also seen trials and drawings for an Edward VIII 1936 mug designed by Robert “Bobby” Baker (later Professor of Ceramics at the Royal College of Art while Tarquin was a student) who before WW2 was working for Rural Industries.

The post-war Cole dynasty at Rye Pottery made tankards and dishes for the 1953 Coronation and have never looked back, producing special designs for each succeeding Royal event. We even printed 2 miles of 6 inch square tiles during the 1981 Royal Wedding celebrations.

Recently we bought two lovely Royal pieces on ebay, one of which, a Wally Cole design, is we believe a one-off.