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Extract from the December 2009 / January 2010 Magazine
December 2009/January 2010 Magazine Pages 12-13 FRUIT PAINTING ON ROYAL WORCESTER PORCELAIN
by Jeremy Lamond
Painting fruit for Royal Worcester was a skill literally forged in a hot-house atmosphere. Under a glass roof, with no air conditioning and the windows closed to keep out the dust, apprentices learned their profession over seven years. The fruit-painting technique, which gave Royal Worcester an international reputation, was honed to the highest levels in small rooms by special-ists proud of their status and aloof from the junior members of the decorating room. After the age of 60, many of these senior artists were allowed to paint what they liked and refined their skills to their particular specialism. Since many artists stayed at the factory all their working lives, the skills employed in 1920 were often still being passed on by the same artist to the next generation in 1970.
It is believed that the first piece of fruit-painted Royal Worcester was executed by artist Octar Copson for a local farmer in 1880 to celebrate the Pershore plum. Although traditionally 18th century Worcester porcelain is known for its cut fruit and fruit-painted vignettes, these views were nearly always on white porcelain. In the new genre of fruit painting, spawned by Copson, fruit was painted against natural backgrounds using several firings to build up the colour and three-dimensional qualities. The public loved it and fruit painting at Worcester was reborn reaching its zenith in the second quarter of the 20th century.

December 2009 / January 2010 Magazine Page 14

A Royal Worcester oval tureen, cover and stand painted with fruit by John freeman, tureen 15in. wide. Sold for £5,875.

Apprentice fruit painters at Royal Worcester never started with fruit but began by painting birds and, in the 20th century. Doughty figures. In time they would progress to double bird models and limited edition examples before finally graduating to fruit painting. To begin with, apprentices were given plates, flat surfaces first, and each plate was treated as a limited edition. On average, a coloured fruit-painted plate would be fired four to five times to fix each colour before a separate firing for the gilding. The gilder applied 22-carat gold by hand before passing the piece on to the burnisher who polished the gold to a high finish. If the fruit painting was not good enough however, the piece would be smashed well before gilding. Since workers were paid on a piece work basis, this could be quite an expensive way to learn.
In the 1920s fruit painting at Royal Worcester was arguably at its peak. Artists had been encouraged to sign their works after 1900 and this led to fierce pride in their workmanship and consistently high standards in the painting workshop. In the fruit-painting workshop 'The Terrible Seven' painters who worked under the foremanship of William Hawkins provided the core of decorating talent which kept Worcester at the top of the tree. These seven apprentice painters - 'terrible' because they sloped off to play football or cricket whenever the opportunity arose - became names now familiar to every Royal Worcester fruit painting enthusiast. Figures such as Harry Ayrton who was with the factory until 1970, William Bee, William Bagnall, George Moseley, Edward Townsend and Charlie Twilton were accomplished fruit painters although Twilton left the factory during the Depression to spray-paint cars!
Other painters such as Harry Austin and Harry Stinton often supplemented their wages by painting watercolours when times were hard, particularly during the 1930s.
Mention must also be made of William Ricketts who worked at Royal Worcester from the late 1870s until the early 1930s and who is best known for his evocative fruit painting using oils to break up the paints providing mottled backgrounds for his fruits.