Introduction: William Moorcroft, Potter

This sketches the distinctive individuality of William Moorcroft, one of the most celebrated and original potters of the early twentieth century. An active designer, ceramic chemist and manufacturer, he is seen to be different from contemporary ‘art potters’ who tended to be either decorators or chemists, but not both. From the start of his career he was recognised as a potter like no other, but this distinctiveness has been eroded in modern assessments which present him as a manufacturer rather than an artist, and his pottery as a trading commodity rather than as personal expression. This book seeks to recover that very individual potter.