{"product_id":"vintage-h-k-tunstall-autumn-hand-painted-fruit-dish-c-1933-1942","title":"Vintage H\u0026K Tunstall Autumn Hand Painted Fruit Dish, c. 1933–1942","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA small hand painted dish with a shaped octagonal rim drawn out into two flat tab handles, the whole of the inside painted freehand and the outside finished in a clear buttercup yellow.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ground is the striking part. Broad brushloads of cobalt, lilac, sage and tan are laid side by side and pulled across the well in loose vertical strokes, with the cobalt jagged where the brush was dragged out to a point. Nothing is blended. The colours sit next to each other the way poster paint does.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOut of that ground a cluster of fruit is drawn at one side: a bunch of deep blue grapes, a yellow lemon, a peach and a red plum, each outlined in black and filled with thin washes, with green leaves veined in black scattered around the rim. The black outlining is confident and quick.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rim is edged in a fine black line, the tab handles carry a moulded fan of ribs, and the underside is a clean bright yellow to the foot.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe base carries a printed backstamp: a rearing unicorn in a rectangular panel, with MADE IN ENGLAND, H and K, and TUNSTALL alongside it, and the pattern name AUTUMN in green script above.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eH and K Tunstall is Hollinshead and Kirkham, of the Unicorn Pottery at Tunstall in Staffordshire, which is why the mark carries a unicorn. The firm worked at Tunstall from the later nineteenth century until 1956, when it was taken over by Johnson Brothers. Its hand painted wares of the interwar decades sit in the same Staffordshire current as the better known Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper work, produced by paintresses working freehand over a printed outline or, as here, with no outline at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe range given below is the window the antiques trade consistently assigns to this particular backstamp, and it is worth being plain that it comes from dealer consensus on the mark form rather than from a surviving company archive. The firm's own operating dates at Tunstall are the outer bracket, and those are secure. Within them, this mark, with MADE IN ENGLAND and the pattern name printed in green, belongs to the interwar and early war period rather than to the earliest or the final years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNo paintress mark or tally number is present, which is common on the smaller pieces.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1933–1942. Dated by the backstamp. The unicorn panel with MADE IN ENGLAND, H and K, TUNSTALL, and the pattern name in green script is the mark form the trade consistently places in this window, which is dealer consensus on the mark rather than an archival record and is given as such. The secure outer bracket is the firm's working life at Tunstall from the later nineteenth century until the Johnson Brothers takeover in 1956. No paintress mark or tally number is present\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHollinshead and Kirkham, Unicorn Pottery, Tunstall, Staffordshire\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePattern\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAutumn, named in green script on the backstamp\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eShaped octagonal dish with two flat tab handles moulded with a ribbed fan\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHand painted throughout. Broad unblended strokes of cobalt, lilac, sage and tan across the well, with a cluster of grapes, lemon, peach and plum outlined in black, and veined leaves at the rim. Clear yellow exterior, fine black rim line\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrinted backstamp to the base as described. No paintress mark, tally number or registration number\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 7 in. across the handles by 6 in. deep by 1.5 in. high\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eExcellent. No chips, cracks, hairlines or restoration found. Enamels bright and unworn with the black outlining crisp throughout. A few tiny blue flecks fired into the glaze on the underside, original to the making. Glaze clean with no crazing found. Foot rim unworn\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the interwar Staffordshire look in a piece small enough to buy on impulse. The colours are laid on with the confidence of somebody painting the hundredth one that morning, and that speed is exactly what makes it good: the strokes are loose, the fruit is drawn rather than copied, and no two of these are identical.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUse it. It will hold rings by a sink, keys by a door, olives or nuts on a table, or nothing at all on a stack of books. The tab handles mean it passes well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt also photographs far above its size. That cobalt against the yellow exterior is a genuinely arresting combination, and on a shop counter or an open shelf it does the work of something much bigger.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67557181882473,"sku":"VE-1752","price":149.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_c5599534-2714-40a6-b03d-c33af2f07551.jpg?v=1790579707","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-h-k-tunstall-autumn-hand-painted-fruit-dish-c-1933-1942","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}