On 17 July 2024 Stoke-on-Trent became the second ‘World Craft City’ in England following Farnham which achieved the same accolade from the World Crafts Council in 2020. To commemorate this achievement the sole ceramic artefact in the Crafts Study Centre’s collections made in Stoke-on-Trent is displayed: a bowl by Reginald Marlow. Marlow was among the group of students (including Henry Hammond) taught by William Staite Murray’s at the Royal College of Art in the late 1920s and 1930s, who subsequently became principal of Stoke-on-Trent College of Art in 1958.

That only one ceramic artefact from Stoke exists in the collection is both surprising, given how the city has for centuries been a centre of ceramic production, and unsurprising, given the tendency within studio ceramics and those in charge of securing its legacy to eschew anything industrial. The bowl is not reflective of industrial Stoke-on-Trent. Thrown, with irregular iron spots that appear differently through the glaze, the bowl sits firmly within studio ceramics. Yet, as principal of one the potteries’ art schools, Marlow was likely informed by Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramic industry.

The worlds of industrial and studio ceramics are so often seen in opposition to each other, but this autumn, the Crafts Study Centre will be hosting an exhibition by Neil Brownsword - Obsolescence and Renewal - that questions this understanding. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with an original essay by Tanya Harrod on the links between studio ceramics and industry.