Brush holder used at Buchan's pottery

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52379

Title

Ceramics brush holder and brushes used by painter decorators at Buchan's pottery, Portobello

Description

One ceramic brush holder for paintbrushes used by decorators at A. W. Buchan & Co pottery in Portobello. Roughly rectangular in shape, shallow trought at the front extending the full width, and 9 indentations and ridges for holding brushes along front. Glazed in duck-egg blue on top. unglazed on underside. No markings, but not intended for mass production and retail. Some white glaze, possibly underglaze, splashes on the indentations and ridges.

Type

Ceramic

Accession number

TIN3101

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

The Auld Reekie Retold project took a new look at the Buchan pottery and the life of the people who worked there. Four former employees of the company came to the Museum Collections Centre to look at the collection of Buchan ware and share their experiences. Together, they swapped stories and memories of their time at the potteries. Seeing the objects again reminded them of things they had forgotten, and the curator was able to add some valuable first-hand information to the museum records.

In the factory, the women who painted were overseen by supervisors who made sure that the painting was up to the high standard expected. The women were provided with the correct glazes for each design and would look forward to receiving new glaze pots and brushes. The amount of work being produced meant that huge quantities of materials and tools were gone through.

Exhibitions with this item

Other views of this item

Related images

Option	Price
Digital FileElectronic file 72 dpi JPEG	£7.32(inc. VAT 20%)
Digital FileElectronic File 300 dpi TIFF	£37.20(inc. VAT 20%)
You can view and use digital images for personal and educational use. For more information, read our policy on image use. If you wish to use our images for commercial use, please contact us.