Antique Majolica Joseph Holdcroft Pond Lily Creamer Water Pitcher Jug

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Antique Majoilca pond lily theme pitcher / jug featuring floral water lilies and lily pads.

Unlike most who worked in … Read more Antique Majoilca pond lily theme pitcher / jug featuring floral water lilies and lily pads.

Unlike most who worked in the pottery trade, Joseph Holdcroft did not come from poverty. He was the child of an affluent pottery owner, William Holdcroft, who spent most of his education in private schools and first entered into partnership as Holdcroft & Wood, nephew of Enoch Wood, at the George Street Pottery.

Upon graduation from the Wedgwood Institute he joined his father's pottery, where he developed several patents for the manufacture of earthenware. Like George Jones before him, Joseph Holdcroft then worked for Mintons—for eighteen years—leaving there around 1865 to open his own concern on St. Martin's Lane in Longton where he specialized in silver luster. About five years later he opened the Sunderland Pottery at Daisy Bank, Longton where he specialized in majolica, Parian and silver luster. The company's product was well respected and received good sales during its time.

After 1885, the thrust of the company changed and it went from producing high quality original ware to cheaper, poorly potted imitative patterns. The quality of the work suffered for the sake of output and workmanship varied significantly. The company continued production of this cheaper majolica until 1906 when Joseph Holdcroft died. The pottery was then taken over by his son, Thomas who changed the name to Holdcroft Ltd. and added the production of enameled brick. The company continued in operation until around 1930.

It's this long and varied quality production of majolica that is responsible for the tainted reputation of the Holdcroft name today. Whereas their finest majolica is among the best produced, the Holdcroft name on a piece is no guarantee of quality as it is the case of the big three potteries.

Of Holdcroft's original designs, at least twelve were registered between 1870-1883. Many of their other original designs were produced in prodigious quantities though few were copied by contemporary studios.

Recognizing Holdcroft majolica is not always easy since they didn't always mark their wares. When they did mark it the company marked its wares in one of two ways, either with the initials JH in a circle or the name J. Holdcroft in capital letters in a straight line. A way of recognizing unmarked ware is by the underside glaze. Most commonly the underside of Holdcroft pieces will be glazed a recognizable dull green glaze. Some pieces, particularly plates, can be glazed in a mottled gray, blue and brown combination. Less commonly the undersides were glazed in a solid brown or green and brown mottle.

Another way of recognizing Holdcroft is by the quality of the glazes themselves. Their turquoise glaze is a slightly duller color than that of the turquoise of other companies; their green is a slightly dull gray/green. They tend to favor what appears to contemporary eyes to be strange color combinations like turquoise, chartreuse and brown as well as turquoise and brown and cobalt and brown. Their modeling is also not among the finest. Human faces look a little bit odd and animals are usually highly stylized. In general their design sense is rather clumsy from a modern perspective but most of it had decent, and sometimes exceptional, craftsmanship close to that of the "big three". The company made some wonderful things.


Dimensions:
6.5" x 5.5" x 7" (Width x Depth x Height) See less