Martin Brothers Pottery
Together with a number of later Victorian and Edwardian 'artist potters', Wallace
Martin, Walter Martin, Edwin Martin and Charles Martin
(the Martin Brothers) produced handmade vases, jugs, jars and sculptures
for an eager public conditioned by William Morris and the artisanal ethos
that created the Arts and Crafts movement.
A Martin Brothers Grotesque Spoon Warmer (FS11/456).
The brothers' early development was largely unremarkable. Wallace Martin, who became
the primary modeller amongst them, was trained at the Lambeth School of Art
and subsequently did a stint at the Watcombe terracotta works in Torquay. His
canon then largely consisted of copies of existing works garden statuary, large
urns and the odd portrait bust and plaques. His younger sibling Walter Martin also
attended the Lambeth School and got a job with the nearby Doulton works, until
he was injured falling from his pigeon loft and was replaced in turn by his younger
brother Edwin Martin.
By 1873, the Martin brothers had set up their first independent business nearby
in Fulham and their initial output was influenced by the principal decorators and
modellers they had met whilst working at Doulton. Their debt to more comical pieces
by George Tinworth and incised animal centred decoration of Hannah Barlow
bear this out.
A Martin Brothers John Barleycorn Jug (FS9/556).
As well as modelling and glazing, the brothers also had to market and sell their
own work so Wallace and Edwin were not averse to making house calls with a carpet
bag of suitably smart pieces.
Slowly their reputation began to build and by 1877 they took a lease on an
old soap factory in Southall shortly after this Charles Martin was asked to join
his brothers and manage their showrooms. They even undertook a short tour of the
West Country demonstrating their techniques live to the citizens of Falmouth, Torquay
and Exeter.
As business grew, there was some tension in the newly extended family business as
Charles turned out to be something of a tyrant. Although their output had a spontaneous
look and feel to it, there is evidence that Charles stipulated the size, shape,
spouts, handles and even the type of decoration on virtually everything. His iron-handed
control even extend to the size and shape of the 't' in their signatures!
However, one benefit of not worrying about selling, marketing or manning a gallery
was that the remaining brothers could give full vent to their creative juices and
perhaps allowed them to produce their most striking and memorable work.
I am unsure where their propensity for the gothic and the grotesque came from although
the naturalistic work of the sixteenth century French potter Bernard Palissy
is certainly a good candidate.
A Martin Brothers vase decorated with jellyfish, fish and crabs (FS1/35).
Jelly fish, crabs, dragons and other anthropomorphic and mythical beasts appeared
as decoration. There is even a meticulously rendered 'dead parakeet' produced
in the 1890s which surely (before the age of both Monty Python and Damien Hurst)
must have held little commercial merit, although it seems to me an exquisitely beautiful
object; but it was the seemingly ludicrous works like these that opened the door
to the fanciful so called, 'wally bird' jars and covers and the rather unsettling
spoon warmers that owe their heritage more to gargoyles than anything else.
The Martin Brothers really did seem to push the boundaries at the time but have
subsequently become the most eagerly sought after pieces of English art pottery.
I'll leave the final word with a contemporary who was quoted as saying 'We
have a hundred young sculptors who will model you a Venus or an Adonis, but
who ... could give you a Boojum or a Snark in the round?'
Specialists
 | Nic Saintey
Department Head
|  | Andrew Thomas
Ceramics and Glass Expert
|