HORACE ELLIOTT ARTIST IN POTTERY, 1851–1938

Horace Elliott during his life was a potter in England, Scotland, Wales and Germany but until the private publication of this book had been forgotten by almost all collectors of turn-of-the-century ceramics and academics.

Paul Atterbury’s foreword locates Elliott at the heart of the emergence of industrial design in the late Victorian and Edwardian period: ‘An entrepreneur, a practical potter with an understanding of modern ceramic processes, an inventor, a marketing specialist with a modern view of promotion and brand awareness, a retailer, Elliott was all those things and more.’  Elliott didn’t own a ceramic factory; instead,   he worked with potters to make his wares. He ran art pottery shops in London from 1885 in Queensway, Bayswater and Knightsbridge. He then moved to Chelsea and finally Streatham, retiring at the age of 83 in 1934. He exhibited work at three Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society shows in 1889, 1890 and 1893 and it is his work at the Ewenny Pottery, from this period, which is most recognisable today.

The book is a lavish production, hardback and beautifully illustrated with Horace’s ceramics, original drawings and correspondence. It grew from a lecture in the 1990s and developed into a research fellowship at the National Museum of Wales (from 2014 to 2023) to this publication. Over 90% of the information gathered in this book is from primary sources. The author seeks to raise Horace Elliott back to the levels of celebrity he enjoyed in the 1890s and place his work on a par with that of William De Morgan, Sir Edmund Elton and the expanding commercial factories of Doulton and Minton.

HORACE ELLIOTT ARTIST IN POTTERY, 1851–1938

Jonathan Gray, Jonathan Gray, 2024, hb £40; available from www.horaceelliott.com

Condensed from a review by Michael Jeffery in DAS Newsletter No. 134