Friday 26 November 2010

Pottery 'Toys'



We have three unusual ‘pots’ in the Swindon Collection of Studio Ceramics: a train set, a Volkswagen car and a row of Victorian houses all made out of clay, of course, and currently on display in the art gallery.

The train tea set by “Wez” has an engine, a tender, trucks and barrels. The engine is a tea pot. The tender and trucks act as holders for the barrels from which one can drink tea, in theory at least as this is an art gallery piece. For pottery enthusiasts the set is slip cast.

The green Volkswagen car was made by Shona Small when she was a student at Bristol College of art back in 1977. She kindly donated the piece to our collection. It is shiny dark green and black with red, orange, white and matt black enamels with silver lustre trims and black and white checks. A truly colourful object.

By contrast the derelict terrace houses are very subtly coloured and very detailed. Victorian House 1977 by Ian Beamish is a realistic sculpture of three partly demolished five-storey Victorian houses. It is painted in subtle browns, pink and green and was purchased from the potter in 1977.

Visitor Comments


I just had to share with you the most recent comments from the art gallery comments book. They include:

"Worth the train ride from Bristol. Thanks."
"A pleasure to visit this exhibition."
"It's wicked!"
"We enjoyed the children's room and making a puppet show, and this room is the biggest room I've ever seen in the world. From Freya (nearly 4)

and my favourite:

"Good use of the rates over the years"

Why not come in and share your responses with us?