150 YEARS OF POOLE

To mark our anniversary, join us in celebrating 150 years of vibrantly creative pottery #PoolePottery150

The story of Poole Pottery began in 1873 when Jesse Carter bought a tile factory on Poole’s East Quay near to the local deposits of Dorset clay. Famous for its purity throughout the world, the ware created from this clay became one of the most important, most distinctive, and most collectable of the twentieth century British ceramics. Through the emerging skills for hand painting, Poole established the name and style that we know today. As Poole Pottery’s reputation grew, some of the UK’s most prolific visionaries, designers, and ceramicists were drawn to collaborating with the skilled craftspeople that worked within the Poole Pottery team because of the unrivalled vibrancy of colour and ideas.

Each painter in Poole’s history was encouraged to mark their work as their own- each piece can still identify its painter by an individual mark on the foot next to the backstamp. This autonomy and creative ownership gave rise to the embrace of different creative movements throughout its 150 years. Most notably, in the 1920’s, patterns emerged using a combination of abstract florals, geometric patterns, and stylised wildlife creating the Art Deco style that established Poole Pottery as a modernist, recognisable brand throughout the world.

The inclusion of living glazes within the Poole repertoire at the turn of the century was celebrated, giving rise to the distinctive fiery red colour palette and reaffirming Poole Pottery’s reputation as an innovative, individual, and experimental British Pottery. Re-engineered 24 years later, 2023 welcomes in a new era of contemporary red hues to celebrate 150 years of covetable vibrancy.