Today, we have chatted with Clare, our Collections Assistant in Digital Preservation, who lets us know about how she has been working remotely and her favourite document from our collections…
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During lockdown I had the chance to work remotely with our digital archive, taking the opportunity to tidy up digital files behind the scenes, ensuring that our collections are preserved and available to view in our online catalogue. Whilst doing this I was asked the question, “What is your favourite document?“
It’s a tough question! The archive is immense and covers a breadth of areas! Whilst working from home I got to delve into a wide variety of collections from local history; Bournemouth and Weymouth – black and white photos from 1900s, The Stewarts Business archive (that includes a personal favourite of mine), two people delivering a cheese plant capturing the early 80s fashion of the time; and not forgetting images of Dorset’s nature taken by Captain Cyril Diver CBE in 1930 as part of a ground breaking ecological study of the wildlife on Studland!
All of the above are glimpses of what is available to view. For me though, with a keen interest in art and design, the collection that stands out the most, is the Poole Pottery archive. My favourite document, taken from this archive, is this loose-leaf Pattern Book from 1930-1959.
What is striking about this Pattern Book, is the bold use of colour and how preserving the designs digitally has captured the vivid colours. In this archive you will see designs by Truda Carter and her contemporaries that were used for Poole Pottery nursery and tableware. Carter, an important and influential art deco designer worked for the pottery between 1921 and 1950, creating the vast majority of the patterns that decorated Poole pottery during the 1920s and 30’s.
It is these brightly coloured, loosely floral, abstract designs for which she is best known. I particularly like the stylised flowers, use of geometric shapes familiar in art deco, and the opportunity to see how a pencil sketch progresses into a full design – with original notes and annotations on some pages.
What makes this document so special is that Poole Pottery earthenware featuring these designs, is still around, and very collectable today.
Dorset History Centre houses the Poole Pottery archive including information, not just on product design, but on other areas of the business too such as company history, property, finance and clay mining.
Thank you for showing and explaining the history of Poole and Dorset in bygone years. We shall soon be visiting this area and found this overview particularly interesting. Especially about early 20 century Dorset pottery !
Hi Doreen, we are glad you enjoyed the blog! If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to check out some of our other blogs which look at various elements of life in Poole and Bournemouth!