'Home maker' thumbnail 1
'Home maker' thumbnail 2
Not on display

'Home maker'

Coffee Pot
1955-1968 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Coffee pot with white body, handle and spout, black lid. Bulbous body is decorated with images of 1950s contemporary style domestic furniture and furnishings, each surrounded by a border of black lines.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Coffee Pot
  • Lid
Title'Home maker' (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
White earthenware, glazed and printed
Brief description
Coffee pot, 'Homemaker', des. Arnold and Seeney, man. Ridgway Potteries Ltd., 1955-1968
Physical description
Coffee pot with white body, handle and spout, black lid. Bulbous body is decorated with images of 1950s contemporary style domestic furniture and furnishings, each surrounded by a border of black lines.
Dimensions
  • Height: 18.3cm
  • Width: 19.7cm
  • Depth: 11.5cm
Marks and inscriptions
'RIDGWAY POTTERIES LTD / MADE IN STAFFORDSHIRE ENGLAND / HOMEMAKER / ALL COLOURS GUARANTEED / UNDERGLAZE AND DETERGENT PROOF' printed in black
Historical context
Aimed at the middle to lower income consumer, Homemaker tableware was retailed through Woolworths between 1955 and 1968. The images of 1950s Contemporary style domestic furniture and furnishings as decoration on such humble household products, proved particularly popular acting as a style guide to what one ought to have in their modern interiors. Some of the images are recognisable 'high design' such as Robin Day's reclining armchair and others are representative of more popular design of the period, like the boomerang-shaped table. A complete range of tableware was produced by Ridgway with the Homemaker design, including full dinner and tea and coffee sets, tureens and serving platters. In terms of what was actually happening in design in 1957 when Homemaker was fist released, many of the objects depicted in the decoration were well established icons. Certainly by 1968 these objects would have looked very out-of-date.
The economy of the manufacturing process is demonstrated in the application of the transfer printing on the more complex shapes, like the coffee and tea pots, where the large transfer has simply been cut into smaller pieces and applied in pieces around the shape.
[Susan McCormack, 'British Design at Home', p.141]
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
Breward Christopher and Wood, Ghislaine. British design from 1948:Innovation in the Modern Age . London, V&A publishing, 2012. p134. ISBN 978 1 851776740
Collection
Accession number
C.50:1, 2-1991

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Record createdFebruary 4, 2000
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