Portmeirion Pottery for Collectors

The Pantheon (Dome), Portmeirion, Gwynedd, Wales, Photographic Print
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The village of Portmeirion was made famous when it was used as the location of the cult 1960s series, The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan. In 1925 Sir Clough Williams-Ellis began building the village on the coast of North Wales. Its idiosyncratic architecture made it an ideal setting for a series renowned for its oddities and incongruities.

Although Portmeirion Pottery is made in Stoke-on-Trent, there are strong connections to Sir Clough Williams-Ellis' village. His daughter, Susan Williams-Ellis, who studied at the Chelsea School of Art under Sir Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, designed pottery exclusively for the Portmeirion gift shop in the 1950s.

In 1960, she and her husband, Euan Cooper-Willis, bought the pottery decorating business of A.E. Gray Ltd which she had been using to produce her designs. The following year they bought Kirkham's Ltd, a pottery manufacturing company and they renamed the entire business Portmeirion Potteries. These acquisitions allowed Susan to design both the shapes and surface patterns, an unusual thing for a designer to do at that time.

Portmeirion Crazy Daisy Teapot
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In 1963, Susan Williams-Ellis' first design for Portmeirion Potteries was made from tubular moulds she found at the factory. She used different diameters and cut them to varying lengths to produce the revolutionary tall, straight coffee service she called Totem. It became an immediate success. It was made in deep colours: blue, amber, olive, and had embossed stars, spirals and stars as decoration. To prove its timeless quality, the design has been relaunched recently.

Susan Williams-Ellis had already produced one of her most expensive designs. During the 1950s she had designed fabric based on the mineral malachite for use as curtains in Portmeirion's hotel. After she and her husband bought A.E. Gray, she reproduced the design in pottery. Malachite was very expensive to make especially as it was sumptuously gilded so few pieces were produced, making it very collectable now.

Moss Agate was another early design only made in small quantities due to the costs involved. This time Susan used engravings of the semi-precious mineral moss agate as the pattern. The design was transferred, usually on to bone china, and then gold was applied to the motifs before firing giving an embossed look.

Portmeirion Botanic Garden Cake Plate
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After those early designs, Susan Williams-Ellis has produced a wealth of designs. Her best-known is Botanic Garden. When looking for inspiration, Susan came across a 19th century herbal, The Universal or Botanical, Medical and Agricultural Dictionary by Thomas Green, lavishly illustrated with colour pictures. Her first idea was to use just one of them but then she thought about the wonderful services produced by companies like Chelsea and Derby which had a different motif on every piece so she decided she could do the same thing using all the illustrations in the book - and Botanic Garden was born.

With the success of the design, Susan then hunted for more antiquarian botanic books. First she found The Moral of Flowers, illustrated by William Clarke. When these were introduced on her pottery, they were an immediate success so Susan found more of his work to use.

Stephen McKay, one of the authors of the definitive work, Portmeirion Pottery, (authors: Steven Jenkins and Stephen P. McKay) says that Americans are the biggest collectors of older Botanic Garden pieces while British collectors generally prefer other designs.

Portmeirion Botanic
Garden Sovereign Vase Shape
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Now one of the most collectable and desirable of these other designs is Magic Garden. Stephen McKay says that the decoration is meant to show the flowers, birds and plants that astronauts might find on the moon. Because it was not popular when introduced so not many pieces were produced so now rarity adds to its attractions and value. It was a follow-up to the hugely successful Magic City's Eastern influenced design, brought out in 1966.

Susan's use of antiquarian prints wasn't confined to beautiful pictures of flowers. She found some old plates for printing advertisements in the basement of the factory. She used them to produce a range featuring Victorian chemist's advertisements for medicines, toothpastes and cosmetics. These are very sought after by both collectors of Portmeirion pottery and collectors of advertising.

After 45 years, Portmeirion pottery is now as popular as ever and, although it was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1988, still remains strongly influenced by the design talents of the family - Anwyl and Menna Cooper-Willis, the daughters of Susan Williams-Ellis and Euan Cooper-Willis worked closely with their mother before her death.

Portmeirion Pottery
Rose Bouquet Tea Set
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Portmeirion Pottery attracts keen collectors. Some, like Stephen McKay who boasts a collection of 4000 pieces, collect across the whole range of Portmeirion. Others concentrate on particular designs like Botanic Garden or Magic Garden. Then there are collectors who buy Portmeirion because it overlaps with their area of collecting like the chemist's advertisements.

Currently, many pieces can be bought at very reasonable prices. Depending on the design, you can expect to pay from £25 to £5000 for one of the company's distinctive, tall coffee pots. Looking at pieces in auctions over the past year, it is possible to buy Portmeirion in mixed lots at very reasonable prices, possibly because few dealers are buying it at the moment. eBay is another good place to look for Portmeirion Pottery. Prices of the designs produced in small quantities like Malachite, Moss Agate and Magic Garden, are going to be more expensive. As time goes on, though, prices are almost certain to rise so, if you want to collect Portmeirion Pottery, now is the time to start.