In 1931 Susie Cooper was looking for premises to house her fledgling company and once again Harry Wood showing his unerring eye for new talent, offered her space at the Crown Works. Wood and Sons became the main supplier of white ware for the Susie Cooper pottery, thus Harry combined the support of a new designer with good business. By 1933 the pottery had become an associate member of Wood and Sons, with Susie Cooper becoming a director and shareholder of Bursley Ltd. Throughout this period and up to 1959 when she purchased the factory from Woods, she retained full artistic control.
In the process I also had a look around the V&A collections to see if they had any of the Inca designs, but they didn't. However of course they have quite a bit of Susie Cooper - and I found this design which stood out like a beacon.
I fell in love with it immediately, and would love to get hold of even 1 piece of this setting. There is a set on eBay UK currently at $2,500! so my chances are slim...but you never know what might be hiding in a box in an auction.
The shape of this series is called "Kestrel"- designed in 1932 by Susie (along with many others) and Wood & Sons made it to her exacting standards. The Kestrel shape was popular for more than thirty years and had many different patterns applied to it. The designed was patented due to the development of the Kestrel Cover Dish, which was unique, due to it's varied uses.
There are a number of other designs using the "Wood's" shapes in the Kestrel range by Susie, but none of them come near to the brilliance of this design to my mind....although there are a number in plain pastel colours which are very smart.
Images via V&A Collections, copyright (not for commercial purposes)
OMGoodness! This is beyond fabulous! Would love to see this set in a Poirot movie like some of her others.
ReplyDeleteYes its always fun finding pottery designs in films :)
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