This post is a bit of a detour from the norm that feature my 35mm slide scans of Martinware and instead it’s to highlight the personal Martinware collection of Jim Wilkes.

Sometime early in 2020 I contacted Jim after seeing his website, following a trawl of Martinware related websites via Google search – there are quite a few out there and many are auction sites and my intention in reaching out was just to share the site with other Martinware enthusiasts.

Jim was able to fill in some gaps in my knowledge of the Martin Brothers pottery, in particular in bringing my attention to the fact that in the previous post “Gargoyle or Gargle”, the piece highlighted is actually a spoon-warmer and fulfills a utilitarian function besides looking very distinctive.

I selected this particular example of one the Martin Brothers “Face Jugs”, which is double sided and where the expression on the reverse is the same face but a different expression because the images included a preliminary pencil drawing of the design that suggests that the Martin Brothers settled on a idea with a drawing before embarking on a sculpt – it’s quite an animated drawing as well and reminds me of my attempts at animating the pottery in drawn animation, something that I will cover in a future post.

Jim is currently re-designing his website, however you can still visit it in its current form to view his collection, which is quite varied and demonstrates that the Martin Brothers produced many designs as multiples with small variations.

www.martinwarepottery.com