Charger
Della Robbia Pottery
Category
Ceramics
Date
1896
Materials
earthenware with sgraffito, slips and coloured glazes
Measurements
60 mm (H)470 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Birkenhead
Order this imageCollection
Standen House and Garden, West Sussex
NT 1213669
Summary
Large plaque, red earthenware with white slip, circular form with central circular well, flattened foot rim wiped clean of slip, designed by Harold Rathbone and decorated by Cassandra Annie Walker, Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead, April 1896; decorated at the centre of the well with a portrait of a woman wearing a headband of roses, beneath the inscription ‘Who is Sylvia? What is She?’ on a green ribbon, all against a ground of blue glaze, eight evenly spaced reserved circles around the well containing red roses and stems the grounds alternately yellow and green, blue glaze ground around the flange, eight fleur-de-lys around the edge of the well which is without the blue glaze ground colour, the design coloured with red, yellow, green and blue glazes.
Full description
Cassandra Annie Walker (1875-1936) grew up in Liverpool and worked at the short-lived Della Robbia Pottery in Birkenhead, which operated from 1894-1906. Taking its name and inspiration from the maiolica (tin glazed earthenware) masterpieces of Italian Renaissance sculptor Luca Della Robbia, the studio was established according to Arts and Crafts principles, aspiring to use local labour and materials, and to create works entirely by hand. Della Robbia employed many women as designers and decorators and Walker’s work is among its very finest and most progressive. The ceramics were bold, bright and colourful – the Magazine of Art reported that, with Della Robbia ceramics in a room, ‘the ordinary meal would have the comparative air of a banquet.’ Unfortunately, the venture was never profitable and it closed after just 12 years in business. While working at Della Robbia, Walker attended Liverpool School of Architecture and Applied Art, and won a scholarship from the Liverpool Corporation to study at Westminster School of Art. She described her profession as ‘pottery designer’ and was entrusted with a number of important commissions for Della Robbia. Walker was particularly interested in architectural ceramics and exhibited several wall panels and reliefs at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery, attracting critical praise in contemporary art publications such as The Studio. Walker is remembered as ‘a woman of independent ways and behaviour’, who often wore a long, flowing Arabic-style cloak while walking around Liverpool. Walker had an affinity for figurative work and attended evening life classes as part of her training in 1901-2. This is shown to beautiful effect in her striking depiction of Sylvia from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona on a wall plaque decorated by her to the pottery’s manager, Harold Rathbone’s (1858-1929) design. The inscription ‘Who is Sylvia? What is She?’ is the taken from a song in the fourth act of the play, which ends ‘To her let us garlands bring’, inspiring her floral crown and the roundels of roses that encircle her. Walker’s precise sgraffito lines cut through the pale white slip to the red clay beneath, giving an illustrative, expressive quality to Sylvia’s face. The pale ground colour, flattened perspective and scroll are inspired by sixteenth century Italian maiolica Belle Donne portrait plates. Harold Rathbone was the founder of and driving force behind the Della Robbia Pottery. He trained at the Slade School of Art and then at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1878, he visited Italy with his family, where encountered the work of fifteenth century ceramicist and sculptor, Luca Della Robbia. Rathbone based himself in London and exhibited work widely. Rathbone’s father was a prolific patron of the arts and the family was well known in Pre-Raphaelite circles. By the time he established the Della Robbia Pottery, Rathbone was connected to many distinguished artists and thinkers, including John Ruskin, Mary Seton Watts and George Frederic Watts, Ford Maddox Brown and Frank Brangwyn.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of base: Harold Rathbone / [indecipherable] [?]fecit / April / 96 (designer's inscription) D [ship] R (manufacturer's mark) Underside of base: C.A.W. (decorator's mark, hand painted in green overglaze, Cassandra Annie Walker)
Makers and roles
Della Robbia Pottery , manufacturer Cassandra Annie Walker (1875 - 1936), decorator Harold Steward Rathbone (Liverpool 1858 - Port Saint, Isle of Man 1929) , designer
References
Hyland 2013: Peter Hyland, The Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead, 1894-1906, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club 2013 Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 160-1