Maker: Sir Edmund Harry Elton (Sunflower Pottery)
This small vase was made by Sir Edmund Harry Elton in the grounds of his ancestral home, Clevedon Court. It is a beautiful example of Sir Edmund’s restless experimenting with bodies and glazes at his small Sunflower Pottery, which occupies a special niche in the Arts & Crafts movement.
The vase is glazed in black with streaks of turquoise-green and rust and decorated in relief with stylised poinsettias in blue and brown, built up with coloured slip. An Elton Ware vase of more conventional shape but with the same impressed ‘pie-crust’ rim is on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
After reading chemistry at Cambridge, Edmund inherited his baronetcy and the 14th century manor house of Clevedon Court in 1883. He determined to teach himself pottery, and with the help of his estate carpenter and a local blacksmith, built a primitive wheel in one of the outhouses. A local flower-pot thrower was first hired, but most of the throwing was done by George Masters, who started out as a low-ranking servant of Sir Edmund.
The idea of an aristocratic potter struggling to attain perfection captivated the press, and Elton Ware received enthusiastic notice.
From 1902 he began to develop metallic crackle glazes, coated with liquid platinum or gold. These proved highly successful and were sold at Tiffany in New York. In all, Sir Edmund won 12 gold medals and two silver medals at international exhibitions before he died in 1920.
Each item of Elton Ware was unique and signed ‘Elton’ by Sir Edmund. The pots were fired on three pieces of clay, instead of the usual stilts, leaving behind distinctive round marks that can also be seen on the base of the vase.
Clevedon Court now belongs to the National Trust and has a small museum of Elton Ware. An oil painting from 1891 shows Sir Edmund decorating one of his vases.
Condition Excellent overall. Two of the applied small poinsettia berries have detached.
Height: 10.5 cm
Width: 8.5 cm
Net weight: 257 g
