This is a highly collectable large mug made by Margery Clinton at her Templelands Studio in Dunbar. These mugs are certainly harder to find.
My mug is probably not for everyday use - and is more of an addition to a collection of Scottish Art Pottery. The lustre decoration is just sublime.
It features on the exterior Clinton's typical and sophisticated lustre glazes. The main body colour is matt black with a band of French blue in the centre and a paler blue liberally running down from the rim. The inside is her iconic yellow and golden glazes, as photographed. I love the little circular detail on the handle. The exterior pattern reminds me a little of the Scottish sky and sea - with a silhouette of the Western Isles in the background.
CONDITION. In good vintage condition. The is a little craquelure to the yellow lustre glaze in the base - which I think happened in the making and not from use. It has been priced accordingly.
It has been signed with her initials on the base.
The mug measures: 3 3/4 inches in height and with a diameter of just under 3 1/2 inches. The opposing rim to handle is 4 1/2 inches.
Postage will be with the Royal Mail Recorded in the UK. This will cost £4.95 and applied to your order at the checkout.
HISTORY: Margery Clinton (1931–2005) was a specialist in reduction lustre glazes. She studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art between 1949 and 1953 and was part of the Young Glasgow group, whose inaugural exhibition was held at the McLellan Galleries in 1958.
She undertook her postgraduate study at the Royal College of Art, London, researching reduction lustre glazes, an interest she later developed with great success.
She also undertook a number of notable architectural commissions later in her life, and her work with tiles was regarded as spectacular. She has been exhibited at the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Glasgow Art Gallery and the Royal Museum of Scotland.
An outstanding ceramic mural, The Physic Garden, commissioned for the tercentenary of Mary Erskine School, in Edinburgh, typifies her imaginative portrayal of medicinal herbal plants in six panels, in memory of the founder's husband, James Hair, an Edinburgh druggist. Appropriately, she chose Jonah and the Whale as the subject for a large decorative panel in the new Musselburgh Baths.
She was particularly interested in lustre glazing in Islamic art, and she travelled widely, attracting the attention of the Sultan of Oman and the King of Jordan. She executed commissions for both, and for the Duke of Edinburgh.
Currently, examples of her work are currently on display in the Scottish Design Galleries at the V&A Museum in Dundee, and the Museum of Edinburgh on the Royal Mile.