Denby | C20Ceramics

Oct 30

Denby Romany

The Denby design “Romany” is from the 1970’s – but I don’t have an exact date.

Apparently this striking glaze came about from an accidental mixing of the wrong proportions in a glaze recipe – and when it was fired and shown to Glynn Colledge he loved the effects of the glaze with its runs and thicker brown areas on top of the “old gold” glaze…so it went into production as a range.

It has that very 1970’s handmade feel about it, and is yet still contemporary – especially with some of the forms such as the bowl in the first image. Some of the pieces of Romany display lovely colour runs in the glaze, and the colour can vary from piece to piece quite a bit as you can see below – but this all adds to the charm of the design I think.

The Romany glaze has a lovely satiny smooth feel to the touch as well. Denby pottery is also all very tough stoneware – so if cared for it will easily last for decades.

Denby Troubador

Another of my Denby favourites is “Troubador” (sic). You will also see it spelled Troubadour, but the first spelling is the original spelling by Denby.

Designed in the early 1970s.

It is beautifully simple and delicate pattern of superbly hand painted magnolias with leaves in soft greens and pale browns with the faintest touch of dusty pink, on a simple stone coloured stoneware.

I really like the forms of the 1960s – early 1970’s Denby – especially forms such as the bowls and plates in this series.

Timeless but contemporary at the same time – and gaining popularity to a new generation currently.

The pattern, form design and quality production of this dinnerware is sadly almost non existent these days – apart from hand made studio pottery – which this most closely resembles.

Denby Cottage Blue

Denby Cottage Blue was introduced in 1926 and continued to be popular into the 1980’s – a very long running design by any standards.

Cottage Blue is typified by its blue mottled glaze which is partly transparent (I would call it Imperial Blue – it isn’t a bright cobalt blue). Contrasting with the blue is the lovely buttercup yellow interior on most of the forms.

It was introduced on the traditional shapes Denby was using at the time – and it looks like more shapes were added as time went by.

I’ve seen it attributed to Donald Gilbert – but I don’t think that can be correct as he didn’t join the firm until 1931.

Here are some of the charming pieces from Cottage Blue. I particularly like the angled forms of some of the ramekins and serving dishes.