Torquay Devon Mottware Quirky Mottos and All

A quirky and fun English art pottery, begun really as a cottage industry from several modest potteries in the Devon area, especially the Torquay area, of Southern England from local red clays, from the 1870s until the factories closed in the 1960s. 

It is usually of red clay decorated with bright glazes, cottages and mottos or sayings that run the gamut from proverbs and sound advice to nearly outrageous. Always fun and different and very collectible!

There is a wonderful collectors society that used to publish a wonderful quarterly magazine…. The Scandy, named for the stylized foliage often seen on the pottery. Also featured is the traditional cottage. 

There are also flowers, the Kingfisher bird, a cockerel and other designs.

The mottos span folk wisdom, proverbs, advice, folklore and were often in dialect.

Very collectible.

Here are some examples from Time Was Antiques noted with motto and which pottery if known… 

The eggcup above says

Speak little but think much... 

with the traditional cottage on the back. Made by Aller Vale pottery, Torquay Devon in the 1940-1950s.

 a souvenir cup and saucer from Tiree, which a village in the Hebridees of Scotland, made by the Royal Watcombe pottery in Devon between 1958-1966

A rolling stone gathers no moss

From Longpark pottery in Torquay from 1905-1922 is this cream pitcher bearing the Scandy design...

The motto is in dialect and is:

Elp yersel tu craim

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse at a few examples of this fun pottery genre...

to see more examples at Time Was Antiques, click on the photos, or visit this link for the Cottage Ware and Motto Ware category

  

Cold Snap Continues in England and more mottoware added

Snow and cold continued in the UK. This is a photo of Buckingham Palace in the snow from another visit a few years ago. It was quite fun to be in London in the snow...in April! My husband was a Coldstream Guard in the Brigade of Guards (also known as the Chilly Rivers) and found the guard at Buck House before they had to bring the guards inside the gate after an incident with an American tourist heckling a fellow guardsman while on duty.

There was something cheering about popping into a pub or tea room for a cuppa with the snow lightly falling. But then, anything is lovely with a cuppa and a Eccles cake!

 A countryside snow photo. The roads can be treacherous as few folks have snow tires. But...beautiful. This is on the way through the Cotswolds.

 On to another piece of mottoware pottery...which I just love. This is a butter tub or butter dish from Longpark, Torquay with the vernacular motto Elp Yerzel Tu Butter with a tradition sailing ship on the other side that I just added at Time Was Antiques. I recently unearthed a small collection we had gotten in England but  had been lost in the warehouse since our move several years ago. Stuff was arriving from a buying trip as we were packing to move & it got repacked, mis labeled and lost! I'd forgotten we had them. How fun is that!!!

Click the photo for more information.

Rain & sunshine today, in  the 40s and we are off to the Sequim Community Church Christmas program tonight. So fun!  Plan to use up some bananas baking some Banana Streusel muffins in the meantime. Have a great day!