Aldermaston Pottery was a pottery located in the Berkshire village of Aldermaston, England. It was founded in 1955 by Alan Caiger-Smith and was known for its tin-glaze pottery and particularly its lustre ware.[1][2] His first assistant, Geoffrey Eastop, joined him in 1956, a year after the pottery started.[3] They were joined in 1961 by David Tipler and Edgar Campden, who remained there until 1975 and 1993 respectively. Over a period of forty years, around sixty assistants worked at the pottery.
 Aldermaston Pottery building | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Ceramics |
| Genre | Studio pottery |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Founder | Alan Caiger-Smith |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , UK |
Key people | See #Potters |
| Products | Tin-glazed earthenware |
In 1965, the pottery was the subject of a television documentary produced by Michael Darlow.[4]
The pottery scaled back its production in June 1993 when Caiger-Smith partially retired and stopped hiring assistants.[5][6] It continued to be operated commercially until it was sold in 2006, and the building has now been converted into a private dwelling.
Reading Museum has an extensive collection of Aldermaston pottery displayed in its Atrium gallery. The pottery can also be seen on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Potters
- Alan Caiger-Smith
- Geoffrey Eastop
- David Tipler
- Julian Bellmont[7]
- Edgar Campden[8]
- Harriet Coleridge[citation needed]
- Mohamed Hamid[8]
- Andrew Hazelden[citation needed]
- Myra McDonnell[9]
- Laurence McGowan[10]
- Simon Rich[11]
References
Further reading
- Caiger-Smith, Alan (1993). Alan Caiger-Smith and Aldermaston Pottery, 1955-1993. ISBN 0-9521510-0-6.
- White, Jane (2018). Alan Caiger-Smith and the Legacy of the Aldermaston Pottery. ISBN 978-1-9108072-5-5.