Crowan Pottery

About Crowan Pottery Prices

Harry and May Davis had a long standing policy of trying to hold the price of their pottery as low as possible. Their ideal was to make and sell good functional pots cheaply, so that everyone could afford them.

Harry had no time for the artificially inflated prices of those studio potters who he considered had 'jumped on the fine art bandwagon'. Everything made at Crowan had to be functional - Arthur Griffiths remembers him being unhappy at the thought that people wanted large individual jugs to put flowers in! Although why he didn't consider that a functional use of a jug, we don't really know!

1950s Crowan Pottery Price List

As can be seen by opening the price list above, a 16 piece decorated coffee set would have cost about £4.75 retail from Crowan Pottery, and a  23 piece dinner service about  £19.00.

Such was the quality and durability of the Crowan output, that such a dinner service now, some 50 years later, might well sell for in excess of £400 - and still rising. The irony is that in his life Harry Davis seemed to despise pottery collectors.

He refused to mark his work individually, but just a glance at most of his pots is enough to identify them.

 

More about Harry Davis and his work
The Potters Alternative	The introduction to this book gives a good indication of how Harry Davis viewed the Studio Pottery movement, as 'led' by Bernard Leach. Although he used the design style he formed at the Leach Pottery for the rest of his working life, he had no time for the artistic 'posing' that went on there.
Glazes and Pigments	This gives an idea of the materials he used to achieve the very distinctive glazes and colours of Crowan and Crewenna pots.
Working at Crowan	Arthur Griffiths worked with Harry and May Davis at Crowan Pottery between 1949 and 1953. This article from Ceramic Review gives a good insight into the workings of the Pottery, and the work ethics of Harry Davis.