Dinner plate, hand-painted earthenware, 'Clematis', designed by Suzanne Katkhuda, England, 1990.

Dinner plate of red earthenware, the upper surface covered with a cream slip and decorated with a handpainted design of clematis flowers and foliage in blue, yellow, and green. The rim is decorated with sponging in green. The plate has no footring, and is glazed on both sides with the exception of the flat base.

According to Suzanne Katkhuda, the plate was made on a jigger. When leather hard, slip was applying on a banding wheel. It was then biscuit fired to 1020 degrees C, after which it was painted and glazed and fired again to 1120 degrees C, with a 10 minute soak to avoid crazing.

Given by Suzanne Katkhuda

Tableware in the Clematis pattern was designed in November 1990 and launched at the NEC, Birmingham, in February 1991. It was first produced at the Stable Yard, Holdenby. The earliest plates were made without footrings. Production was later moved to Brixworth, near Northampton.

Holdenby Designs was established by Suzanne Katkhuda and Jim Powell in 1987 to manufacture and sell Katkhuda's designs. The company was first based in the stable yard of Holdenby House, a stately home in Northamptonshire. These premises were rapidly outgrown, and at the end of 1991 the company moved to the nearby village of Brixworth. In 1993, further premises were acquired in Parsonage Street, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, where white earthenware was produced.

C.45-2011