Hinchcliffe and Barber first started making decorative platters and tableware in their studios in Dorset. But as demand outstripped the studio facility they approached Poole Pottery and arranged for them to manufacture the biscuitware, thus allowing the studio to concentrate on the decoration. Impressed with the success of the Hinchcliffe and Barber studio range, Poole Pottery asked H&B to design onto existing Poole Pottery shapes – the range was known as Poole Blue. In the meantime Hinchcliffe and Barber opened the Sixpenny Handley Studio and trained three decorators to assist them.

Hinchcliffe and Barber’s marketing strategy consisted of bringing their new look to the attention of the style-conscious public with coverage in lifestyle magazines, finding that that the product and the mood were well matched. The studio produced many special editions as magazine offers – which was a relatively new concept at the time – and also supplied the smaller design-led shops, such as Co-Existence in Bath and The General Trading Company in London. In 1985 George Davis, of the then new group ‘Next’ commissioned Hinchcliffe and Barber to design the first tableware range for the new homeware shops and the Next Directory.

Due to the demand for the ceramics, and in order to ease their production problems, they issued a license to Saville Pottery to produce some of the more popular designs and introduce some more tableware shapes. This allowed the studio to concentrate on one-off pieces, handmade tiles and product development.

Tulip and Dorset Delft were amongst the first designs that were produced by Saville's for H&B, and the simplicity of both designs proved very popular. Hinchcliffe and Barber was taken up by many department stores, including the John Lewis Partnership, who stocked Dorset Delft and continued to sell it until 1997 - only discontinuing when Saville Pottery itself ceased production.

The Hinchcliffe and Barber textile ranges often complemented the ceramics, but the team was also known for the beautiful indigo resist and block printed studio-produced textiles. Once again production could not keep up with demand and H&B sent the blocks to be made by artisanal producers in Malaysia.

Hinchcliffe and Barber have showed at national and international trade fairs and sold all over the world.

Since 1997 John Hinchcliffe and Wendy Barber have continued their work as designers and undertaken commissions from public collections, manufacturers and private customers.

John Hinchcliffe passed away after a brief but severe illness on 20 December 2010.

 

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