Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Horace Elliot was a designer and dealer active at the end of the nineteenth century. As a keen member of the arts and crafts movement, he visited country potteries to acquire pots for his Bayswater showroom and to show at the various arts and crafts exhibitions in which he was involved. He was particularly associated with Ewenny. He made annual visits there until 1913, often staying for a long time, and he designed many pieces for the Jenkins brothers to make. His fleur-de-lys mark was often applied to Ewenny and other wares. Elliot's interest was not confined to Ewenny; he was associated with C H Brannam, Bourne Denby and other potteries of the day. He was a protagonist in the Esperanto movement, and sometimes inscribed his pots in that language.

There have been potteries at Ewenny in South Wales for hundreds of years. The two major companies producing in Ewenny today are the Ewenny Pottery and the Claypits Pottery. Ewenny Pottery is the younger, having been founded in 1815. Claypits is at least a hundred years older, possibly much more. A Claypits apprentice, Evan Jenkins, set up the Ewenny Pottery and the company has stayed in the possession of the Jenkins family to the present day. Jenkinses were also involved with the management of Claypits Pottery. The potteries of Ewenny were traditional country potteries using unsophisticated equipment and local materials. Naturally, around the turn of the century they found favour with followers of the Arts and Crafts movement, notably Horace Elliot, and this led to their work being seen by a wider circle of people. Ewenny pots are usually in red clay with slip or mottled glaze decoration.