Gertrude Ethel Sharp, the youngest of seven children, was born in 1890. In her early 20s, she studied Applied Art at the Royal College of Art in London, there meeting, and marrying in 1915, John Adams, a potter, designer and technical ceramicist from a famous Staffordshire family. After their marriage, Truda and John moved to South Africa, to take up teaching posts at the Durban School of Art. They returned to Britain in about 1921, to join a new partnership formed by Cyril Carter, the owner of the Poole pottery, to make a new range of decorative wares. This, well-known today as Carter, Stabler and Adams, became synonymous with Poole pottery during its most famous period of production, and established the company’s reputation in the 1920s and 1930s as one of Britain’s most avant garde potteries.
This was largely due to Truda Adams who, as the company’s Art Director, established the distinctive Poole look, which featured dynamic hand painted designs drawn from European modernism and Art Deco, along with exotic and historic sources. Her husband John created the glazes and colours, and designed many of the shapes. Harold and Phoebe Stabler, the other members of the partnership, also contributed figure and shape designs. Together, they turned a Dorset pottery hitherto known for tiles into one of Britain’s best known ceramic names.
In the late 1920s, Truda left her husband for Cyril Carter. They married, and built together in 1932 a striking Modernist house called Yaffle Hill, designed by Edward Maufe. Despite this domestic drama, Truda and John continued to work together at the pottery, and Truda maintained a design role until her retirement in 1950. However, it seems that Truda and Cyril had a rather stormy relationship, and this may be one of the reasons why little is known about Truda today, despite her being one of the greatest female ceramic designers of the 20th century. Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliff are household names, with the latter the subject of a recent biopic, yet much of Truda’s life remains a mystery. Indeed, until recently there was no known photograph of her and, apart from her designs in the Poole Pottery archives, no documents about her life. Research among the many members of the Carter family has produced very little. It is as thought there was a conscious attempt, and a very thorough one, perhaps by Cyril Carter, to wipe her from history.
However, thanks to work by Paul Carter, Cyril’s grandson, a photograph of Truda has finally emerged. It was discovered in South Africa and shows Truda as a guest at a wedding in 1943, in a group photographed in the garden at Yaffle Hill. At that point Truda was 53. What we need now are more photographs from the earlier chapters of her life, and this could be possible, now we know what she looked like. Such images could be the key to securing her rightful position as one of Britain’s great women designers.
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A volunteer at Dorset History Centre has scoured the Poole Pottery archives to see if there are any further photos of Truda Carter, using the above image as a reference. Despite this work, and based on conclusions drawn by other historians, we suspect that this might be one of the very few existing photographs of Truda Carter.
If you are aware of any images of Truda, please do let us know: archives@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk. We would love to hear from you!
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This was a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Paul Atterbury.
Hi, No Photos of Truda Carter, but I have a large bowl, very old, signed by Carter, Poole, had it for about 20 years, car boot find