page_title: Della Robbia Pottery
section_title: Products
hierarchical_section_title: Della Robbia Pottery / Products
caption_attribution_description: English: Collection Della Robbia Pottery, Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England.
context_page_description: The Della Robbia Pottery was a ceramic factory founded in 1894 in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England. It closed in 1906. Initially it mostly made large pieces with high artistic aspirations, especially relief panels for architectural use, but also ornamental vessels and plates, intended for display rather than use.
  The name was taken from the famous family workshop founded by Luca della Robbia in 15th-century Florence, which specialized in large coloured reliefs installed on walls. Some of the Birkenhead pieces imitated this style closely, while others drew from the more general style of Italian maiolica.
  The pottery was established as a true Arts & Crafts pottery on the lines advocated by William Morris, using local labour and raw materials such as local red clay from Moreton, Wirral. The pottery, all earthenware, had lustrous lead glazes and often used patterns of interweaving plants, typical of Art Nouveau, with heraldic and Islamic motifs.
  It wares are not to be confused with earlier wares marked "Della Robbia" produced by Charles Canning in Tamworth.
context_section_description: Dressler was mainly responsible for the decorative architectural panels, many of which can still be seen in the local area of Birkenhead and Liverpool, as well as in the local museums.  The brightly coloured panels, inspired by the work of the Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia and his family, did not prove to be very popular on the dark brick buildings of the period, the pottery turning to large two-handled vases, presentation wares, wall chargers and plates, as well as ceramic clock cases, tiled window boxes, numerous types of vases and similar wares, as a source of income. Dressler left the pottery in 1897 to establish his own pottery, the Medmenham Pottery, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
  The Della Robbia mark is usually handwritten on the base of pieces with a ship device, and often the initials of the designer and decorator, and sometimes the date. Example initials include: 
  'C' for Charles Collis
  'C.A.W.' for Cassandia Annie Walker
  'C.M.' for Carlo Manzoni
  'L.W.' for Liza Wilkins
  'R.B' for Ruth Bare
  'P.J' for Percy Jacques
caption: Display case, Williamson Art Gallery
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