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Extract from the February 2009 Magazine
February 2009 Magazine Pages 30-31 COLLECTING PILKINTON'S LANCASTRIAN POTTERY

Part II: The Non-Lustre Wares

by Angela and Barry Corbett
In Part I of this article (October 2008) we were concerned with lustres. Pilkington's also produced an extensive range of non-lustre pottery which can be just as attractive and pieces are considerably more available and affordable.
Our photographic records contain around 6,000 non-lustre items held in museums and private collections covering pottery production from 1904 to 1938. They fall into the following categories: glaze effects, matt glazes, decorated pieces, Lapis ware and modelled subjects. A representative collection should contain examples of all of these.

February 2009 Magazine Page 33Figure 7. Unsigned carved items and dual colour vases.

A host of miscellaneous items remain, including individual pieces such as a hatpin holder, a clock and even a chamber pot. However, with the exception of buttons and brooches, the evidence shows that these miscellaneous items were either one-offs or produced in such small quantities as not to be realistically collectable items. Whilst there are many buttons and brooches they are not marked and collecting them is a specialised activity.

Glaze Effects
William Burton first exhibited Pilkington's pottery at the Henry Graves Gallery, London, in 1904. No less an authority than Walter Crane personally selected a sample of glazes for the Victoria & Albert Museum collection. Burton was a showman who endowed his glazes with exotic-sounding names. The 1904 exhibition featured four categories of glaze, each with sub-categories. The major categories were Crystalline, Opalescent, Textured and Transmutation. The finer points of the glaze names need not concern the collector too much.
Crystalline glazes have small specks of mica. Various black and brown glazes are to be found (aventurine) but a particularly sought-after glaze is Green Sunstone. All sparkle in the light (figure 2).
Opalescent glazes are characterised by a natural flow over the contours of the vase, often changing colour as they do so. Occasionally, areas of cloud form within the glaze, or the body colour of the vase is exposed (figure 1).
Textured glazes include effects where the glaze resembles orange peel or eggshell. Fruit-skin glazes, especially lustrous fruit skin, seem to be made of apricot or apple (figure 4, left).
Transmutation glazes are the hardest to describe, not least because Burton conceded that almost all his glazes might be so termed. However, he reserved the term for glazes with 'splashed and mottled reds, greens, purples and browns'. In particular some flambe glazes which were splashed with other colours were singled out in this category (figure 5).