Janice Tchalenko, designer for Dartington
1996
Janice Tchalenko / 1996
Full cursive signature and the written year 1996 on the V&A Fish bowl, edition 13/100. This dates the museum example, not all uses of the signature.
signed · stoneware
Ware & regional marks
Dartington Pottery marks
The name “AW, compact impressed monogram beside the round DP seal” appears among Dartington Pottery marks on stoneware.
- Tradition from
- From 1984
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Products
- Stoneware tableware, Vases and decorative vessels, Hand-painted giftware, Collaborative limited editions
- Marks
- 5
1984 identifies the reorganised commercial pottery, following a 1970s training workshop and earlier Dartington Hall studios. Devon production ended in 2005; the Dartington name and designs continue at Grayshott. This is not a single unchanged business dating from the 1930s.
What to look for
- Find the round impressed DP workshop seal, then examine nearby stamps and the painted decoration for personal initials. Workshop and individual marks answer different parts of the attribution.
- Compare how initials were made as well as their letters. Alan White’s impressed AW is different from written AW or AN marks associated with other decorators.
- A painted signature may identify a designer or decorator rather than the person who threw the pot. On numbered editions, keep the edition number, date and all signatures together in the record.
- Dartington Crystal glass labels and etched D marks belong to the glass business. They are not ceramic workshop seals.
Key makers & their marks
5 marks
Alan White, working at Dartington
Undated
AW, compact impressed monogram beside the round DP seal
Impressed AW is associated with Alan White. Do not read a painted AW as the same mark: Clare Woodall and Alison Nichol used superficially similar written initials.
impressed · stoneware
Petra Tilly, associated with Dartington
Undated
PT, interlocked painted monogram
The dark painted monogram is placed within the decoration, rather than impressed in the clay. A personal signature alone also occurs on independent studio work and does not prove Dartington manufacture.
painted · stoneware
Wayne Hathaway, working at Dartington
Undated
WH, read with the square seal correctly oriented
Squared initials beside the round workshop seal distinguish Hathaway’s personal stamp from the factory DP. The posted object is undated.
impressed · stoneware
Dartington Pottery
Undated
DP, interlocked within a circular border
The circular DP is the workshop seal. Adjacent initials identify an individual contributor and are separate marks; neither the circle nor the glaze supplies a year.
impressed · stoneware
About Dartington Pottery
Dartington Pottery developed on the Dartington Hall Estate in South Devon, where ceramic workshops had operated since the early 1930s. Bernard Leach and his son David worked there before the Second World War. Sam Haile and Marianne de Trey arrived in 1947, and de Trey continued the pottery after Haile’s death. The later training workshop gave potters practical experience in making and decorating useful wares.
The modern commercial pottery was established in 1984 by Stephen Course, Peter Cook, Peter Hazel and Janice Tchalenko. Course specialised in glazes, while Cook brought production and teaching experience. Tchalenko developed colourful tableware and giftware using her own decorative methods. Her Leopard pattern won the First Manchester Prize for Art in Production in 1988. The pottery made individual pieces as well as repeatable ranges, with hand painting giving each object its own details.
Workshop production involved several potters and decorators, whose personal stamps or painted initials can accompany the circular DP factory seal. Larger collaborative editions also carry designers’ signatures. In 2005 Grayshott Pottery acquired the Dartington operation and continued its designs in Surrey. The collection includes tableware, special editions and limited editions, using high fired reduction glazes.
Also known as: Dart Pottery · Dartington Pottery Training Workshop · Dartington Pottery, Shinners Bridge workshop and associated potters