The Burton Art Gallery & Museum in Bideford stands on the edge of a well-kept town park a few yards from the river Torridge.
The attractive and lively museum may be small, but it is packed with things to see, from historical items to works by leading west-country makers in the contemporary craft gallery. A newly refurbished Ceramics Gallery is at the heart of the museum.
North Devon was once one of Britain’s major pottery-making centres. It used the local resources of red earthernware clay, coal to fuel the kilns and Bideford’s port to export the wares to Ireland, Wales and the New World.
The trade, which originated in medieval times, flourished in the 17th century and carried on into the early years of the last century.
The museum has always held a collection of north Devon slipware, most recognisable in the golden brown harvest jugs covered in sgraffito decoration (a technique used to decorate ceramics in which the top layer has patterns scratched into it).
This collection became nationally important in 2007 when the museum, supported by grants from the Art Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund, bought the RJ Lloyd ceramics collection.
Lloyd, an artist, potter and Bideford resident, began collecting in 1948. The collection now comprises more than 500 pieces spanning 300 years and includes items from other potteries in the UK, early and significant works by leading studio potters of the 20th century, as well as pieces that show the wide range of wares made locally – from harvest jugs to milk coolers, candlesticks to ridge tiles, puzzle jugs to money boxes.
Important collection
More than 200 pieces are displayed in the refurbished galleries. These are arranged under a number of themes such as Making and Decorating, Commissioned Pieces, Domestic Ware, Potters and Artists, and Novelty Pieces.
The thematic approach means that pieces made decades apart and brought together and works by anonymous potters are placed side-by-side with those by studio potters including Michael Cardew and several members of the Leach family.
These include Bernard Leach, founder of the Leach Pottery in St Ives in 1920, which is considered by many to be the birthplace of British studio pottery. One unsigned piece is attributed to Shoji Hamada, Leach’s collaborator in his early days at St Ives.
I was startled by the arrangement of some of the works, such as a contemporary looking plate that turns out to have been made by EB Fishley at the Fremington Pottery in the late 19th or early 20th century.
This underlines the importance of this collection and the success of the display in drawing the visitors’ attention the fact that, at least in part, studio pottery in Britain had its origins in the long tradition of local domestic pottery.
The overall impression of each case is also, as leading British ceramist Alison Britton says in the book that accompanies the exhibition, aesthetically pleasing “exploiting the sculpture of [the collection], the formal joys of verticals and horizontals, upright jugs, flat plates”.
The collection also makes an important contribution to our knowledge of social history. This is particularly evident in the decoration on the harvest jugs, whether made for commemorative purposes, such as those made for the Bideford Wesleyan bazaar in 1904, or for thirsty farmworkers.
One of the most unusual, and Lloyd’s favourite, depicts a shipwreck with a lifeboat rowing out to it and an anchor being thrown through the air. The naive sgraffito drawing successfully creates the reality of the collapsing rigging and the efforts of the rescuers. Many of the harvest jugs carry simple verses.
However, visitors cannot read all the text because some of it is hidden round the back of the objects. The Burton Museum should provide copies of these verses and the various descriptions on the wares in a booklet or on information sheets because they will be of interest to social historians as well as the casual viewer.
There are two ways into the Ceramics Gallery. An introductory panel at each entrance, together with dispensers for the information sheets, would help the visitors to understand what they are looking at.
A touchscreen digital display allows visitors to rotate, but not enlarge, 18 of the pieces in the collection. I hope that this can be expanded in the future to show some of the pieces not on display. These can be studied by appointment.
The 74-page book published to accompany the exhibition features essays by Simon Olding, director of the Crafts Study Centre in Surrey, and Britton. It also includes an extended interview with Lloyd, which provides an invaluable introduction to slipware pottery and his collection.
As Britton perceptively writes: “The print [on contemporary tableware] will withstand the dishwasher, the glaze won’t poison you, but our ‘ordinary’ second-hand tableware is aesthetically so inferior to the crockery of north Devon in the 18th century, in which ‘a casual roughness gives the breath of life’.”
“Each piece has a soul”
If I were able to take away only one piece from the collection it would be a 11cm-high jug made by Lloyd in 1990. It is one his Midsummer series and is decorated with an abstract pattern characteristic of Lloyd’s art.
This piece exemplifies his approach: “What I felt was that, even though a pot may be decorated in a very naive way, each piece has a soul. It’s not trying to be something it’s not, it’s just being itself, and I think that honest approach is a very sincere approach.”
Works by Clive Bowen of the Shebbear Pottery illustrate that the tradition of north Devon slipware is still alive. They are included in the collection and are for sale in the contemporary craft gallery.
On the day I visited, the museum was alive with the chat of visitors and sounds of a temporary exhibition being hung.
The Burton is a fine example of a museum that has something for everybody and where the boundaries between the historical and the contemporary, and between craft, art and history are all successfully blurred and where the journey to the museum, however long, is well worth it.
Peter Mason is a writer on culture
Image: Sgraffito mugs by Michael Cardew
Cost £480,000 (acquisition £295,000, refurbishment and design £60,000, interactives £42,000, part-time post for three years £40,000)
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund, Bideford Bridge Trust, Friends of the Burton, Devon County Council, Torridge District Council, Viscountess Boyd Charitable Trust
Exhibition design 20/20 Displays
Audience development and interactive access consultant Isabel Hughes
Multimedia design Atacama
Editor RJ Lloyd Collection, Simon Olding
Publicity and marketing Hannah Prothero
The attractive and lively museum may be small, but it is packed with things to see, from historical items to works by leading west-country makers in the contemporary craft gallery. A newly refurbished Ceramics Gallery is at the heart of the museum.
North Devon was once one of Britain’s major pottery-making centres. It used the local resources of red earthernware clay, coal to fuel the kilns and Bideford’s port to export the wares to Ireland, Wales and the New World.
The trade, which originated in medieval times, flourished in the 17th century and carried on into the early years of the last century.
The museum has always held a collection of north Devon slipware, most recognisable in the golden brown harvest jugs covered in sgraffito decoration (a technique used to decorate ceramics in which the top layer has patterns scratched into it).
This collection became nationally important in 2007 when the museum, supported by grants from the Art Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund, bought the RJ Lloyd ceramics collection.
Lloyd, an artist, potter and Bideford resident, began collecting in 1948. The collection now comprises more than 500 pieces spanning 300 years and includes items from other potteries in the UK, early and significant works by leading studio potters of the 20th century, as well as pieces that show the wide range of wares made locally – from harvest jugs to milk coolers, candlesticks to ridge tiles, puzzle jugs to money boxes.
Important collection
More than 200 pieces are displayed in the refurbished galleries. These are arranged under a number of themes such as Making and Decorating, Commissioned Pieces, Domestic Ware, Potters and Artists, and Novelty Pieces.
The thematic approach means that pieces made decades apart and brought together and works by anonymous potters are placed side-by-side with those by studio potters including Michael Cardew and several members of the Leach family.
These include Bernard Leach, founder of the Leach Pottery in St Ives in 1920, which is considered by many to be the birthplace of British studio pottery. One unsigned piece is attributed to Shoji Hamada, Leach’s collaborator in his early days at St Ives.
I was startled by the arrangement of some of the works, such as a contemporary looking plate that turns out to have been made by EB Fishley at the Fremington Pottery in the late 19th or early 20th century.
This underlines the importance of this collection and the success of the display in drawing the visitors’ attention the fact that, at least in part, studio pottery in Britain had its origins in the long tradition of local domestic pottery.
The overall impression of each case is also, as leading British ceramist Alison Britton says in the book that accompanies the exhibition, aesthetically pleasing “exploiting the sculpture of [the collection], the formal joys of verticals and horizontals, upright jugs, flat plates”.
The collection also makes an important contribution to our knowledge of social history. This is particularly evident in the decoration on the harvest jugs, whether made for commemorative purposes, such as those made for the Bideford Wesleyan bazaar in 1904, or for thirsty farmworkers.
One of the most unusual, and Lloyd’s favourite, depicts a shipwreck with a lifeboat rowing out to it and an anchor being thrown through the air. The naive sgraffito drawing successfully creates the reality of the collapsing rigging and the efforts of the rescuers. Many of the harvest jugs carry simple verses.
However, visitors cannot read all the text because some of it is hidden round the back of the objects. The Burton Museum should provide copies of these verses and the various descriptions on the wares in a booklet or on information sheets because they will be of interest to social historians as well as the casual viewer.
There are two ways into the Ceramics Gallery. An introductory panel at each entrance, together with dispensers for the information sheets, would help the visitors to understand what they are looking at.
A touchscreen digital display allows visitors to rotate, but not enlarge, 18 of the pieces in the collection. I hope that this can be expanded in the future to show some of the pieces not on display. These can be studied by appointment.
The 74-page book published to accompany the exhibition features essays by Simon Olding, director of the Crafts Study Centre in Surrey, and Britton. It also includes an extended interview with Lloyd, which provides an invaluable introduction to slipware pottery and his collection.
As Britton perceptively writes: “The print [on contemporary tableware] will withstand the dishwasher, the glaze won’t poison you, but our ‘ordinary’ second-hand tableware is aesthetically so inferior to the crockery of north Devon in the 18th century, in which ‘a casual roughness gives the breath of life’.”
“Each piece has a soul”
If I were able to take away only one piece from the collection it would be a 11cm-high jug made by Lloyd in 1990. It is one his Midsummer series and is decorated with an abstract pattern characteristic of Lloyd’s art.
This piece exemplifies his approach: “What I felt was that, even though a pot may be decorated in a very naive way, each piece has a soul. It’s not trying to be something it’s not, it’s just being itself, and I think that honest approach is a very sincere approach.”
Works by Clive Bowen of the Shebbear Pottery illustrate that the tradition of north Devon slipware is still alive. They are included in the collection and are for sale in the contemporary craft gallery.
On the day I visited, the museum was alive with the chat of visitors and sounds of a temporary exhibition being hung.
The Burton is a fine example of a museum that has something for everybody and where the boundaries between the historical and the contemporary, and between craft, art and history are all successfully blurred and where the journey to the museum, however long, is well worth it.
Peter Mason is a writer on culture
Image: Sgraffito mugs by Michael Cardew
Project data
Cost £480,000 (acquisition £295,000, refurbishment and design £60,000, interactives £42,000, part-time post for three years £40,000)
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund, Bideford Bridge Trust, Friends of the Burton, Devon County Council, Torridge District Council, Viscountess Boyd Charitable Trust
Exhibition design 20/20 Displays
Audience development and interactive access consultant Isabel Hughes
Multimedia design Atacama
Editor RJ Lloyd Collection, Simon Olding
Publicity and marketing Hannah Prothero