The Compton Pottery Collection
When the unique Arts and Crafts building by Christopher Turnor first opened in 1904 as a purpose-built gallery dedicated to the work of G. F. Watts, it was also used as a hostel for Mary Seton Watts’s potters from The Potters’ Arts Guild. Founded around 1900 in the village of Compton as an authentic pottery inspired by the ideas of Ruskin and Morris, The Potters’ Arts Guild, as the name suggested, followed the model of a medieval guild with workmen being given the opportunity to ennoble their lives through creative handiwork. Mary’s pottery soon became a successful business and continued prospering until 1955. Consequently, Watts Gallery, as the only public museum, now houses a unique collection of over 200 pieces of Compton Pottery as testimony to the Arts and Crafts Movement legacy in Compton. Our newly catalogued collection showcases the stylistic development of the designs ranging from well-known terracotta garden pots to more quirky small coloured pieces, including unusual designs such as a jewellery set of Zodiac sign pendants, Tennyson’s Bust bookends or a Lighthouse lamp stand.
Compton Pottery by Hilary Calvert
A richly illustrated guide to the Pottery founded by Mary Watts. The Compton Pottery began from an evening class run by Mary Watts, wife of the great Victorian artist GF Watts. It became a thriving village industry that made large terracotta garden pottery and small decorative hand-coloured pieces. This is the first account of the diversity and heritage of this unusual pottery, from its early beginnings to the eventual closure in the mid-1950s. Priced £2.95.Click here to visit the shop
Archibald Knox and Mary Watts: 'Modern Celtic Art' Garden Pottery by Veronica Franklin Gould
Fascinating history, richly illustrated throughout, of the decorative terracotta garden pottery work done by Knox and Mary Watts for Liberty & Co. in the early years of the 20th century. According to Liberty this was the first time, in the UK at least, that the humble garden pot had been treated as an item of decorative skill. Priced £5.50 Click here to visit the shop
