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Plichta & Wemyss
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The names of
Plichta and Wemyss are commonly and often mistakenly associated
and confused. Hopefully the following notes will help clear up some
of the inconsistencies and anomalies that are common.
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Wemyss was a Scottish pottery producing rare, collectable pottery
until its closure in 1930.
•
Jan Plichta was a wholesale china retailer in London between 1930
and the late 1950's.
Wemyss
(pronounced Weems) pottery has for a long time had a tradition for
producing rare and highly collectable pottery. Prices in the thousands
are not uncommon and two Wemyss Ware piglets sold for nearly £70,000
at Sotheby’s annual Scottish Sale at Gleneagles in 2004. The
Fife Pottery of Kirkcaldy in Scotland started about 1820 as Robert
Heron & Son, producing creamware articles and subsequently used
the name of Wemyss Ware in honour of the family from the nearby
Wemyss Castle. Artists were brought from central Europe in the mid-1880's
and the name of Karel Nekola became synonymous with the Wemyss style
of decoration for the next 33 years.
Wemyss Ware was sold exclusively by Thomas Goode of Mayfair, London.Following
the Depression of the 1920's the pottery failed and in 1930 the
Bovey
Pottery
in Devon bought the rights to produce Wemyss ware and employed Karel
Nekola's son, Joseph, as their painter. Distinguishing between wares
from the Fife and Bovey potteries is difficult but experts can tell
from the colouration.
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These
two photographs of a Wemyss pig are not of the genuine article.
This burgundy coloured pig is a fake and there are a lot of them
being sold at the moment and quite a number appear on the eBay auction
site so beware.
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When
Karel Nekola's son Joseph moved from Fife to Devon as the designer,
apart from producing Wemyss pottery he also trained new apprentices.
One of these was Esther Weeks and Nekola taught her how to paint the
famous 'cabbage rose' pattern along with other techniques he had learnt
from his father Karel. |
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When
Joseph died in 1952 Esther Weeks became head decorator in his place.
There was little or no Wemyss pottery produced during the 1960s and
70s, but in 1985 the Griselda Hill pottery started to produce it back
in Scotland, not far from the original Fife pottery. Esther Weeks
painted the Wemyss ware and also taught new painters the skillful
art of the original Wemyss masters. The 'Wemyss Ware' trade mark now
belongs to the Griselda Hill Pottery. This cabbage rose pig is a Wemyss
piggy bank as produced by Griselda Hill. |
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The following
photographs are all of Plichta piggy banks
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Jan
Plichta was a Czech who emigrated to England in the early
1900's and set up as an exporter and wholesaler of glass and pottery.
He worked from the flat above his small warehouse at 37 Store Street,
Bedford Square, London. He was a wholesaler and at no time did he
manufacture or decorate any of his pottery. From the end of the
war he became one of the Bovey Pottery's best customers and had
his name marked on the Wemyss wares that he ordered from them. Plichta
items from the Bovey Pottery were marked ‘Plichta', ‘Plichta,
London, England' or ‘Plichta, London, Made in England' applied
by stamp under the glaze.
Plichta rarely dealt with items carrying the Wemyss mark but did
deal in different quality wares from Bovey; the real original Wemyss
ware, decorated by Nekola in the traditional Wemyss style and the
cheaper less detailed items from the general pottery. Not all models
carrying the Plichta marks were made at Bovey Tracey as he is also
know to have bought from The Elton Pottery of Thomas Mayer.
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Some
designs were produced at both potteries and the experts can distinguish
the source from the method of glazing. No one seems absolutely sure
what happened to Jan Plichta after the mid-1950's but he is known
to have been in poor health for some years.
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