Poor Man's Moorcroft - Staffordshire Art Pottery An insight into the term Poor Man's Moorcroft which is sometimes applied when comparisons are made with some of the other Staffordshire Art Pottery Factories and designs from the 1920-40s.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Poor Man's Moorcroft is a term I have often heard associated with Royal Stanley Jacobean Ware.
The ware was produced by Colclough and Co, Stanley Pottery, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire between 1919-1928 and, like many potteries from this period, was a range of designs created with a similarity to the successful designs of William Moorcroft.
Predominantly the patterns were of pomegranates, Grapes and other fruits and flowers hand painted against rich, dark cobalt glazes but quite often not tubelined like the Moorcroft Wares.
Sampson Hancock and Hollinshead and Kirkham are another couple of factories that spring to mind and even Shelley China introduced a Pomegranate design that resembled the Moorcroft pieces so much that, allegedly, William Moorcroft complained to the powers that be and Shelley were forced to cease production due to the threat of court action.
Being manufactured for literally weeks, the Shelley designs are now extremely rare and command a small fortune when available.
However, to return to the original ware of Royal Stanley I had heard, and occasionally seen photographed, that Colcloughs did in fact produce Tubelined Wares of very good quality and the other week I was fortunate enough to win such a piece at auction. Beautifully Tubelined across the entire piece and a marvellous display of richly coloured fruits it begs me to ask the question.......................
.............Is it really Poor Man's Moorcroft after all???
A selection of the above pottery is available at A Staffordshire Lad www.tias.com/stores/staffslad/ . Direct from The Pottery City of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
