2. E.B. Fishley: The End of an Era

Unlike in Vallauris — where traditional potteries gained a new lease of life by adapting to new values, new tastes, new technologies, and set out to meet the new demands from the buying public — in the UK, E.B. Fishley's death in 1912 signaled, for Michael Cardew, the closure of the last country pottery.

Unlike in Vallauris, La Borne, St Amand-en-Puisaye and elsewhere, where NEW CERAMIC MODERNITIES arose — either as an extension of tradition or as new projects in their own right — in the UK, Leach and Cardew preached a REVIVAL of the country pottery tradition (inspired by Asian models); dismissing the achievements of the ceramic industry and alternative approaches.

It should be noted, however, that the firms C.H. Brannham and W.L. Baron, in Barnstaple, produced similar types of ware as E.B. Fishley — continuing the Devon tradition — till well into the 1930s, combining semi-industrial modes of production with traditional craft skills; as in Vallauris; but in relative isolation.

The vase below is an example of the works produced by C.H. Brannham around 1900. Hand-thrown, hand- dipped in the glaze, fired in a wood kiln, its continued the north Devon ceramic tradition, with the addition of some Art Nouveau elements.

Like the two examples below, they were commissioned by Liberties.