Susie Cooper (1902 – 1995) British ceramicist and designer

Cubist' a gray's pottery coffee set for six designed by Susie Cooper
Cubist’ a gray’s pottery coffee set for six designed by Susie Cooper

Susie Cooper (1902-1995) was an English pottery decorator fascinated by cubist and abstract art. She produced between 1928 and 1929 several pitchers adorned in pure colours arranged in fitted geometric forms. Then won over by art deco trends she discovered at the 1925 Paris World Fair, she developed her own idiom, characterised by using naturalist and plant themes in a geometric, purely decorative style on the crème grounds of dishes, teapots and kitchenware.

Education

She studied under Gordon M. Forsyth at the Burslem School of Art from 1918 to 1922.

Biography

Cooper began working as a designer for A. E. Gray & Company in 1922. Her work became so famous the following year that it was stamped with the words “made by Susie Cooper.” She worked for A. E. Gray until 1929, then had her own pottery company from 1929 until the 1960s, until joining Wedgwood in 1966.


International Ceramics Festival Logo
International Ceramics Festival

Susie Cooper Pottery was founded in 1929 in a factory rented from Doulton. In 1931, she relocated to Burslem’s Crown Works, where she remained for over 50 years. She purchased blanks and created her shapes, both of which were manufactured by various firms until she reached an agreement with Wood and Sons to manufacture her goods.

Initially, she created designs by hand. By 1933, she was employing over 40 painters and utilising a lithographic-transfer process.

Art Deco Susie Cooper Gray's Pottery Modernist Lamp and Beaker Duo
Art Deco Susie Cooper Gray’s Pottery Modernist Lamp and Beaker Duo

John Lewis was her first major commission in 1935, followed by Peter Jones, Harrods, Waring and Gillow, Selfridges, and Heal’s.

In c1933, she created the Curlew shape, and in c1935, she created the Kestrel shape.

Designed tableware for Imperial Airways in 1937—1938. She was a significant innovator in domestic ceramics throughout the 1930s and beyond, known for her elegant and utilitarian shapes. She designed tableware for the 1951 ‘Festival of Britain’ exhibition at the Royal Pavilion in London. She manufactured bone china at Longton’s Jason Works, which she acquired in 1950 and renamed Susie Cooper China.

By the early 1960s, her primary product was bone china, and earthenware production had virtually ceased. In 1961, she merged with R.H. and S.L. Plant (Tuscan Works), which was acquired by Wedgwood, where she remained until 1972 as a senior designer and director. For six decades, she was a prominent potter whose work was lauded both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Style

Although the Susie Cooper Wedgwood lines were only produced until 1979, Cooper continued to operate until 1986. Her designs mirrored the tastes of the time, transitioning from new to traditional to appeal to the American market, then to subdued modern shapes such as mug-like cups and cylindrical teapots in the 1950s, and finally to op art trends in the late 1960s. Her dishes were always fashionable, functional, and reasonably priced. Bright colours, abstract banded patterns, stylised flowers, incised designs, spiral motifs, and polka dots were among the elements she used.

Susie Cooper Gray's Pottery 'Rooster' Nursery Ware Child's Mug Pattern c1928
Susie Cooper Gray’s Pottery ‘Rooster’ Nursery Ware Child’s Mug Pattern c1928

Sources

Atterbury, P., Batkin, M., & Denker, E. P. (2005). Millers twentieth-century ceramics: a collectors guide to British and North American factory-produced ceramics. Miller’s.

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

Kovel, R. M., & Kovel, T. (2007). Kovels’ American collectibles 1900 to 2000. Random House Reference.

Additional Reading

Casey, A., & Eatwell, A. (2002). Susie Cooper: A pioneer of modern design. Antique Collectors’ Club.

Cunningham, H. (1999). Clarice Cliff and Her Contemporaries: Susie Cooper, Keith Murray, Charlotte Rhead, and the Carlton Ware Designers. United States: Schiffer Pub..

Eatwell, A., Cooper, S. (1987). Susie Cooper Productions: An Exhibition of the Work of Susie Cooper. United Kingdom: The Museum.

Marshall, A. (2013). Susie Cooper. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Youds, B. (1996). Susie Cooper: An elegant affair. Thames and Hudson.

More on British Ceramics

  • Alison Milner – British Designer in Eclectic Materials

    Alison Milner – British Designer in Eclectic Materials

    Her aesthetic is clean and clear – reducing, simplifying and uncovering underlying patterns. She prefers to inject gentle humour, visual poetry, narrative and a sense of place into her work.Read More →

  • Susie Cooper (1902 – 1995) British ceramicist and designer

    Susie Cooper (1902 – 1995) British ceramicist and designer

    Breakfast in an American middle-class home in the 1940s was often served on dishes designed by English designer Susie Cooper (1902-1995).Read More →

  • The Adams Family Name and English Potters

    The Adams Family Name and English Potters

    In the 1800s, three separate members with the Adams family name—William Adams (1748-1831), Benjamin Adams (1820), and William Adams—made Anglo-Saxon pottery. (1898-1865). William Adams and Sons is a company that has been around since 1769. It is based in Tunstall and Stoke, both in Staffordshire. It was noted for making high-quality things, especially blue-and-white pottery…

  • Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery (hardcover)

    Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery (hardcover)

    British potters have revitalized traditional ceramic forms for nearly a century by creating or reinventing techniques, materials, and display methods. Things of Beauty Growing delves into the primary vessel typologies that have defined studio ceramics from the early twentieth century, such as bowls, vases, and chargers. Read More →

  • Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) British wood engraver & ceramicist

    Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) British wood engraver & ceramicist

    Eric William Ravilious was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landscapes. He served as a war artist, and was the first British war artist to die on active service in World War II. Ravilious studied with Edward Bawden and…

  • Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces

    Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces

    The National Trust’s collection contains around 75,000 objects and is kept in 250 historic houses in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. One hundred essential pieces chosen from this vast collection add to our understanding of ceramic patronage and history. The collection examines trends of ceramic collecting by British aristocracy and gentry over 400 years.Read More…

  • Moorcroft British (ca. 1913) art pottery manufacturer

    Moorcroft British (ca. 1913) art pottery manufacturer

    William Moorcroft started Moorcroft, a British art pottery manufacturer, in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in 1913.Read More →

  • Michael Cardew (1901 – 1983) British Ceramicist

    Michael Cardew (1901 – 1983) British Ceramicist

    He learned to throw pottery from William Fishley Holland at the Braunton Pottery, North Devon, 1921—22. In 1923, he met Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada at St. Ives.Read More →

  • Charles John Noke (1858 – 1941) British ceramicist

    Charles John Noke (1858 – 1941) British ceramicist

    He modelled vases (including Columbis and Diana) and figures from 1893 to 1898. (including Holbein and Rembrandt vases). With Cuthbert Bailey and John Slater, he experimented with the reproduction of Sung, Ming, and early Ch’ing dynasty blood-red rouge flambé and sang-de-boeuf glazes from the late 1890s to the early 1900sRead More →

  • British Studio Ceramics a Short History

    British Studio Ceramics a Short History

    In Britain, the backlash against the highly ornamented machine-made ceramics that were fashionable in the late 1800s gathered steam. Art potteries were founded by a group of creative craftspeople who William Morris inspired.Read More →

  • Josiah Wedgwood British Ceramics Manufacturer

    Josiah Wedgwood British Ceramics Manufacturer

    He started by producing basic tableware, but by 1759, he had expanded to include beautiful items like classical vases and portrait busts. He was one of the first producers to hire artists to create product designs.Read More →

  • John Adams (1882 – 1953) British Ceramicist and Designer

    John Adams (1882 – 1953) British Ceramicist and Designer

    Index: abc | def | ghi | jkl | mno | pqr | stu | vwx | yz British CeramicistRead More →

  • 6 Amazing Books for the Ceramics Lover

    6 Amazing Books for the Ceramics Lover

    The following 6 books are our latest offerings on Ceramics and Pottery. Everything that will satisfy the novice to the expert. Our blog has focused recently on British Studio pottery and ceramics and we have 3 books that explore the enormous canon of British ceramic collections.Read More →

  • British Ceramics, 1675-1825: The Mint Museum (hardcover)

    British Ceramics, 1675-1825: The Mint Museum (hardcover)

    With over two thousand objects, the Mint Museum’s collection of British ceramics is one of the best and most extensive in the United States. It includes items from all major manufacturing centres, including Wedgwood, Chelsea, Worcester, and Staffordshire. Read More →

  • Bernhard Howell Leach British Potter

    Bernhard Howell Leach British Potter

    Born in Hong Kong, Bernhard Howell Leach was a British ceramicist. He had his headquarters in St Ives, Cornwall and Devon. At the Slade School of Fine Art, London, he studied painting. He went to Japan to teach art at the age of 21.Read More →

You may also be interested in

Lucie Rie British Ceramicist – Encyclopedia of Design

Lucie Rie was an Austrian ceramicist she was born in Vienna, and active Austria and Britain. Between 1922-26, she studied fine art, at Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna, under Michael Powolny. Embed from Getty Images She first became involved in pottery with Powolny and, 1926-38, was a successful potter in her studio in Vienna and active in the movement Neue Werkbund Osterreichs.

Jean Luce – french ceramicist and glassware designer – Encyclopedia of Design

Jean Luce was a French ceramicist and glassware designer, born in Paris. Ceramics and Glassware, from ‘Repertoire du Gout Moderne’, 1920’s (litho). Jean Luce Luce worked in his father’s ceramics shop, which made table crockery. In 1923, he opened his shop although he could not take over its direction until 1931.

Designers by Country

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.