Pattern No: A5469

This is one of less than a dozen designs produced in slipware: the decoration is created by applying coloured slip (liquid clay) on to the earthenware body, which is either white or cream. The coloured slip is usually blue but green, brown and grey was also used as well as highlights of red or yellow. These designs are all in the A5000 series of patterns, in use in 1938/9. Gray’s had created a new partnership with the pottery company Kirkland in 1938 and it’s quite likely that all the slipware pots were made and decorated at that company’s works: the shapes are certainly all Kirkland shapes for Gray’s Pottery. Pots have been recorded with the pattern number written underglaze (for patterns A5324, A5466 and A5469), another clue as to the process and place of manufacture.

The four rectangular dishes shown here are, typically, part of a style of Gray’s hors d’oeuvre sets, often supplied on a wooden tray (more information at grayspottery.co.uk/square-plus).