Soup bowl, hand-painted earthenware, 'Blue Poppy', designed by Suzanne Katkhuda, England, 1992.

Soup bowl of red earthenware, the upper surface covered with a cream slip and decorated with a handpainted design of poppies and foliage in blue, yellow, green and black. The rim is decorated with a sponged band in green. The bowl, which has a footring, is glazed on both sides with a clear glaze.

According to Suzanne Katkhuda, the bowl was made on a jigger / jolley. 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 Poppy pattern was originally designed in January 1992 and produced in red, with a blue version introduced later and launched at the NEC in Birmingham in February 1993. The design was produced from the outset at 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.46-2011