The 'Paintress Designers'

Signed names
Gray’s Pottery paintresses* used signature marks on the back or bottom of the ware to indicate their work, typical of the piece-work practice in the pottery industry. The signature may or may not give a clue to the owner: ‘AB’ was Alice Bloor, ‘NM’ was Nellie Mullock but ‘A’ was Phyllis Bennett, ‘···’ (three dots) was May Salt and ‘K’ was Stella Taylor.
A phase also existed when a signature was painted on the front face of the ware (Illustration 35). Research shows that this is almost exclusively limited to floral patterns incorporating an amount of ‘sponged’ decoration (known as ‘bossing’) and where the pattern number falls within the range 8800 to A3300 (see table below). This puts the practice in use during 1930 and up to the middle of 1936, at a time when Sam Talbot was Art Director. The 26 names so far discovered (May 2024) are as follows, though they are not always easy to decipher:
Ann, Annie, Betty, Dora, Dorothy, Elsie, Emily, EvaC (Eva Cyples), Hilda, Hylda, Jane, Janet, Jean, Kathy (Vera Williams), Kay (Emily Hulme), Lily, Mae, Nita, Phyl and Phyllis (Phyllis Harrison), Rene, Rita, Stella, Vera, Vida, Wynne, Zena.
It can be seen, again, that the signatures and the actual names are not always obvious!
Note that there has never been any suggestion that, in a general sense, these signatures represent designers in the accepted sense of the term.
  * the word paintress is used because only one male decorator’s name has ever come to light.
    This is Roland Heath, whose monogram on his pots is an entwined ‘R’ and ‘H’.

M Baggaley
Four examples of pattern A7365 and one example of pattern A7366 have been seen with this name incorporated in the design. The significance of the name is unknown.

Margaret Bryan (1903-85)
A Nottingham artist, most especially a wood engraver working from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s, may have offered some designs to Gray’s Pottery in 1929 – ref Pat Watson, Antique Dealer & Collectors Guide, July 1992. With the exception of research done regarding Miss Bryan’s engravings by Tony Ingram, this assertion has not been verified by any other sources.

A Stogdon and J Stogdon
From time-to-time matt-glazed straw/buff-coloured pots, usually tankards, sometimes with matching jugs, are seen with the name A Stogdon, J Stogdon or simply Stogdon hand-written on the base. Often the name is accompanied with a simple mark comprising three vertical strokes with a line and a dot beneath. All the pots so far recorded have Gray’s backstamps P1 or R2 (the rubber-printed stamp associated with Kirkland-supplied products and in use from 1935-45). All the decorations are simply executed and relate to country pursuits: angling, grouse shooting, hunting and polo (Illustration 36). The designs appear to be entirely hand-painted, with no printed outlines.
The identity of A Stogdon remains unknown and it is possible that this person purchased the pots either directly from Kirklands, or from Gray’s Pottery, and, in most cases, was allowed to leave the Gray’s Pottery backstamp intact. This suggests an approval on the part of the company: perhaps it was a ‘special series’ for a Gray’s customer.