Histories of UK potters and pottery manufacturers

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© Michael Perry 2011. Contact

Image courtesy of Lema Publishing Ltd, publishers of ‘Tableware International’ www.tablewareinternational.com

Last updated: 1st August 2011

DICKER POTTERIES

An earthenware manufacturer at Lower Dicker, Hailsham, Sussex. The Dicker Pottery was established by Uriah Clark in 1843 on the site of an earlier Pottery dating from the mid-18th century. Clark ran the Pottery until his death in 1904 when his partner and nephew Abel Clark leased the Pottery from Clark’s widow.

In 1912 the Dicker Pottery merged with the neighbouring Boship Green Pottery owned by William Bridges and the business became known as Uriah Clark and Nephew Limited. The Pottery flourished, but Bridges died in 1916 and the impact of the First World War caused the near failure of the business. Following the end of the war the Pottery came under the management of Sydney Harte and during the 1920s and 1930s it producing notable art ware sold mainly to the tourist trade.

The business closed during the Second World War and the buildings were used by the Ministry of Defense. The Pottery was rebuilt and re-opened after the war, however, it was quickly taken over by a local Lewes ironmongery business, Wightman & Parish. Potters Keith and Fiona Richardson were employed to run the business under the name Dicker Potteries Ltd, but despite their best efforts, the Pottery never gained its former prominence and the business closed in 1956.

Dicker art wares are varied, depending on the period. The early ‘Dicker Ware’ was traditional Sussex country pottery with traditional slip-trailed or scraffito decoration produced by William Bridges at the Boship Green Pottery and, following the union of the two Potteries, by Uriah Clarke and Nephew at the Dicker Pottery itself. Bridges death in 1916 and the wartime disruption brought this period to an end.

In the period between the First and Second World Wars Sydney Harte experimented with glaze effects and although the Dicker shapes remained mainly traditional, there are interesting wares with orange, blue and turquoise matt glazes. Best known, however are the Dicker ware from the 1920s onward decorated with a black lustrous glaze prepared with manganese and copper sulphate.

Most of the Dicker wares have a deeply impressed ‘Dicker Ware, Sussex’ mark.

Reference

Bartlett, J. A. (1993). British Ceramic Art 1870-1940. Schiffer Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pennsylvania.

© Mike Perry 2011