I came across the striking vase in the first images recently, and was immediately attracted to it. From the distance I thought it might have been a piece of Lapid Israel pottery, but on closer inspection it turned out to be British – by Cinque Ports Pottery Ltd, The Monastery. It is a pottery I knew next to nothing about so did a quick bit of research and in the process found some quite lovely pieces of British Mid Century pottery. (Cinque Ports is a historic series of coastal towns in Kent, Sussex and Essex U.K.)

Cinque Port Pottery was founded by David Sharp in 1956 with George Gray…the name was later changed to Cinque Ports Pottery Ltd and changed later again include the name of the operating premises at “The Monastery” when George Gray took over this incarnation of the pottery in 1964, after an amicable split between the two owners.

In the 1980s the pottery was handed over to a Jim Elliot, first trading as Cinque Ports Pottery, without the ‘Limited’, then later as Cinque Ports Ltd, without the “Pottery”

The pottery operated until July 2007 until its final closure.

From what I can see the pottery was a high quality slip cast, and appears to be stoneware fired or at least high earthenware fired. Some of the output reminds me of Briglin Pottery London, and other pieces remind me of the potteries of Cornwall and Rye. As I mentioned earlier it also reminds me of Lapid Pottery, with its use of hand painting, and high quality stoneware fired, slip cast pottery.

If searching for this pottery online the autocorrect of many search engines will change to totally unrelated things – the worst in case is the Etsy search function.  To get any results on the Etsy search function you need to use the words “Cinque Port Pottery” to get any results.

The names and locations of this pottery can be a bit confusing, but you can read a more comprehensive history on the Studiopottery.com site or in the book “The Potteries of Rye: 1793 Onwards, Carol Cashmore” pub 1999 if you can locate a copy. (out of print)

Cinque Ports Pottery, The Monastery, Vase 1970s, Photo Ray Garrod

Cinque Ports Pottery, The Monastery, Backstamp

Cinque Ports Mugs via “LianaGB” on Etsy

Cinque Ports Pottery – Photo via “LovelyOldandUseful”on Etsy

Cinque Ports Pottery, Photo via “Heritage Finery” on Etsy

Cinque Ports Pottery, Photo via “BlueCedarShop” Etsy