WordcatTop Quality Articles

1950s art pottery is becoming more desirable by the day.

Even as recently as ten years ago, most 1950s pottery was regarded as junk. But things can change fast in the ceramics world and Miller’s guide to ’50s and ’60s ceramics, first published in 2001 (ISBN 1-84000-372-3), heralded this unique genre coming into its own.

It is still fairly easy to find nice quality examples of 1950s art pottery if you keep your eyes open. A good vase can cost you between 50p and £100 depending where you shop. If you buy through a gallery or specialist retro outlet, you’ll pay through the nose. The intelligent collector takes the time to dig out bargains and hunt down little gems across a variety of not-so-salubrious places!

• boot fairs
• second hand and charity shops
• towns where there are a lot of older people, who originally bought ’50s pottery when it was first fashionable
• antique emporia and junk shops
• jumble sales
• antiques and collectors’ fairs
• ebay and other auction sites
• online antique and collectors’ shops both in the UK and Europe
• house clearances

Ceramics in 1950s USA followed European trends, but the Americans took the archetypal ’50s style and made it their own. Depending on your taste you may find US 1950s ceramics a little cruder, a little less imaginative and somehow more restrained. Very like the US’s take on Art Nouveau and Art Deco. But if it dings your bell, there’s plenty to be found on ebay.

West Germany is the true home of 1950s art pottery, with literally hundreds of factories churning out an amazing variety of colourful, eyecatching, unique and - for the time - extremely unusual ceramics. Most factories didn’t mark their wares other than ‘Germany’ or ‘West Germany’ plus the design’s serial number. So it is difficult to attribute pieces to a factory unless they are by a well known manufacturer like Bay or Scheurlich.

The Italians took up the challenge and came up with what are probably the most extraordinarily wild and unrestrained pieces. Using a bisque base, Italian 1950s art pottery often involves great, thick globs of primary coloured 3d glazes and organic, highly asymmetrical forms. Look out for factory names like Desimona and Faenzarella, but bear in mind that many Italian art potteries didn’t mark their wares so it’s often impossible to attribute work to a specific maker. 

Scandanavia joined in to create a distinctly different, cool, careful and considered style, directly opposite to the Italians’ joyful and unrestrained approach. Stig Lindberg, Rorstrand and Figgioflint, while still relatively easy to get hold of, are commending very high prices these days.

Good old England got stuck in with gusto and a raft of classic designs and respected designers soon emerged. Look out for Midwinter, Alfred Meakin, Rye, Denby, Carlton Ware and Hornsea. And the infamous Troika ware, way beyond the financial reach of many collectors these days.

The best advice for new collectors? Probably the same as you’d give any collector. Be discerning, buy pieces that you love, and you won’t go far wrong. 

While 1950s art pottery is still a relatively unusual thing to collect, it is one of those areas where, if you collect wisely, given a couple of decades you could be sitting on a nice little fortune.