Posts tagged ‘Eve Midwinter’

May 31

Midwinter Roselle

This very attractive pattern is Midwinter “Roselle”, and was produced just before the revolutionary “Stonehenge” series was introduced at Midwinter.

Contrary to what you will read elsewhere, this pattern was designed by Eve Midwinter in 1968 – Not by Jessie Tait. The design is on the popular “Fine Shape” series of forms.

Along with Spanish Garden (by Jessie Tait) Roselle was one of Midwinter’s best selling designs before the introduction of Stonehenge in 1972. It seems to be rarely found here in Australia, but is quite easy to get hold of in the UK.

The delicate border repeat pattern in blues and greens has alternating upright and inverted floral motifs on a bright white background.

The lids and saucers of the design are in a colour somewhere between Royal Blue and Cerulean Blue.

Feb 28

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Midwinter Stonehenge

Midwinter Stonehenge is one of the standout British designs of the 1970s. The series was created by Eve Midwinter c1972 who had previously worked at the Portmeirion factory. The look of Stonehenge was revolutionary and so much of its time.

The Stonehenge shape is typified by its studio like geometric forms, bold curved handles and the very tactile rounded lids and knobs. The designs and colours in Stonehenge typify the “back to nature” design ethos of 1970s in the same way as does Arabia Finland’s Ruska.

“Creation” was the first design of the Stonehenge series – an light cream coloured gloss base glaze, flecked with iron oxide and rustic iron saturated edges. It became popular instantly, and at the height of its popularity 5 tons of glaze was being used each week to keep up with demand. It was exported world wide – and you will sometimes find different names used for the U.S. market.

The Stonehenge designs of “Sun”, “Moon”, and “Earth” soon followed after “Creation” and all became equally as popular. These designs which were all based on “creation” were in production until 1982, and “Sun” even longer. The pieces could be mixed and matched – adding to their appeal. A variation of the design “Wild Oats” by Eve Midwinter also became a very high selling pattern. These 5 patterns from the “Creation” series are the ones you now see most often on the secondary market, and are now being discovered by a whole new generation.

The very last pattern of the Stonehenge series was “Nasturtium” (designed by Jessie Tait) with very vivid colours – but was later withdrawn around 1982 because of legislation on cadmium in blazes. Read more