The story of Dorset Delft
In the early 1980’s Hinchcliffe and Barber designed and made a series of designs featuring farm and domestic animals, which were launched at the Bath and West Show. The then new magazine Country Living was also showing and invited H&B to make six small animal plates as an offer for the magazine. This offer was a huge success and thousands of hand-decorated and signed plates were sold.
The H&B studio in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset employed three decorators producing the studio range of ceramics. Soon demand was such that there was a need to increase production by using manufacturers to make larger commercial ranges to run alongside the studio output. For factory production, the design was simplified by removing the coloured background - this resulted in a lovely cool range which was named Dorset Delft. H&B also hand made Dorset Delft tiles for their own kitchen and continued to make these to order in the Sixpenny Handley studio. The kitchen appeared in several lifestyle magazines.
H&B arranged for Saville Pottery in Stoke on Trent to make the range under licence, and started by designing 11 shapes. The range proved to be extremely popular and sold through all the John Lewis stores, as well as other shops and stores in the UK, Europe, Australia, Japan and America. With the success of the tableware, H&B brought out a complementary fabric, which was sold as yardage, aprons, tablecloths and napkins. The plasticized version was particularly successful.
The original glaze used in the studio was very white, as were the first pieces made by Saville Pottery, but after a year or two the glaze was changed and Dorset Delft then had a slightly creamier base colour. Customers readily accepted this, welcoming and accepting the evolution of the design.
Dorset Delft went out of production in 1997, following a change in ownership and a major restructuring at Saville Pottery.
Now in 2009 H&B are pleased to have placed the production with Fairmont & Main ltd. This very pretty version of Dorset Delft is available on a range of traditional and very distinctive shapes.
In the early 1980’s Hinchcliffe and Barber designed and made a series of designs featuring farm and domestic animals, which were launched at the Bath and West Show. The then new magazine Country Living was also showing and invited H&B to make six small animal plates as an offer for the magazine. This offer was a huge success and thousands of hand-decorated and signed plates were sold.
The H&B studio in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset employed three decorators producing the studio range of ceramics. Soon demand was such that there was a need to increase production by using manufacturers to make larger commercial ranges to run alongside the studio output. For factory production, the design was simplified by removing the coloured background - this resulted in a lovely cool range which was named Dorset Delft. H&B also hand made Dorset Delft tiles for their own kitchen and continued to make these to order in the Sixpenny Handley studio. The kitchen appeared in several lifestyle magazines.
H&B arranged for Saville Pottery in Stoke on Trent to make the range under licence, and started by designing 11 shapes. The range proved to be extremely popular and sold through all the John Lewis stores, as well as other shops and stores in the UK, Europe, Australia, Japan and America. With the success of the tableware, H&B brought out a complementary fabric, which was sold as yardage, aprons, tablecloths and napkins. The plasticized version was particularly successful.
The original glaze used in the studio was very white, as were the first pieces made by Saville Pottery, but after a year or two the glaze was changed and Dorset Delft then had a slightly creamier base colour. Customers readily accepted this, welcoming and accepting the evolution of the design.
Dorset Delft went out of production in 1997, following a change in ownership and a major restructuring at Saville Pottery.
Now in 2009 H&B are pleased to have placed the production with Fairmont & Main ltd. This very pretty version of Dorset Delft is available on a range of traditional and very distinctive shapes.