Orange and gold lustre presentation vase and cover, 'Royal Lancastrian Pottery', made by Pilkington's Tile and Pottery Company, England, 1910

Given by Miss Moira Forsyth

Made by Pilkington’s Tile and Pottery Co, Lancashire in 1910, probably from a series of vases. One of the vases was selected for presentation to Sir Charles Hercules Read, Keeper of the former Department of British & Medieval Antiquities & Ethnography at the British Museum, from William Burton, managing director of Pilkington’s Pottery & Tile Company, as a mark of their longstanding friendship. The V&A vase differs slightly in colour, lustre and composition of the decoration from another version, probably the one presented to Read, which was sold from the Godden collection in 1989 (Christies sale catalogue 19 July 1989, p.119, lot 230) and is now in the British Museum. Another (or this same one) illustrated by Margery Clinton, The Complete Potter: Lustres, 1991. The V&A example, not being selected for presentation, was subsequently owned by the designer and decorator Gordon Mitchell Forsyth and passed to his daughter Moira Forsyth.

Pilkington's Tile & Pottery Co. was run by Joseph Burton (1868-1934) as manager and his brother William (1863-1941), a chemist, who was art director. With Abraham Lomax, the Burtons were responsible for the development of a wide range of different types of glaze and also for the introduction of wares painted in coloured lustres, for which Pilkington's is probably most celebrated. The more extrovert and better-known of the brothers, William Burton trained first at Wedgwood. He also taught and worked as an advisor to the ceramics industry and to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Joseph Burton was an expert in early Chinese ceramics. Both Burtons lectured and published widely.

C.39&A-1974