37 figures of gods and goddesses, made from metal, stone and ceramic, are represented in the collection.

Image Details
Date: 10 May 2026
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 200
Licensing: Image of an English Heritage asset. This image cannot be licensed.

It was sculpted by Joseph Durham in 1862 and produced by the Copeland factory for the Art Union of London.

The piece depicts a young barefoot girl cradling a small, sleeping dog while holding a finger to her lips.

It is made of Parian porcelain, an unglazed type of ceramic developed to resemble carved marble.

The base features the title “GO TO SLEEP” on a ribbon at the front, with impressed marks on the back indicating the artist, year, and publisher

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland
Material: Parian porcelain
Artist: after Joseph Durham ARA (1814–1877)
Date: c. 1862

Image Details
Date: 21 April 2026
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Cragside, Rothbury, Northumberland
Material: Parian porcelain
Artist: Unknown artist
Date: c. 1800-1899

Image Details
Date: 20 June 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/40s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a National Trust asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Provenance: Bequeathed by Sir Bernard Eckstein, 1948.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Earthenware
Artist: Unknown
Date: circa 1670

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Provenance: Presented by Cyril Andrade, 1961.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Earthenware
Artist: Unknown
Date: 1690-1710

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Provenance: Presented by Barrie and Deedee Wigmore, 2019.

From Wikipedia

The four Martin Brothers were pottery manufacturers in London from 1873 to 1914. In their own day their Martinware was described as art pottery, and they were one of the earliest potteries making this, but in modern terms they fit better into the studio pottery category, which was invented later.

The four brothers (Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin) produced a distinctive type of stoneware pottery from the 1870s through to 1914, when their pottery closed, with a little work being produced through to 1923, when the last brother, Robert Wallace Martin, died. Their output included both vessels and figures. They were best known for their bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles, fashioned in a whimsical but highly skillful style. The “Wally Birds” vary, and do not represent any actual species, but generally have a large and rather fierce-looking beak, massive feet and talons, and a quizzical look in their large eyes, which have a rather human shape. Their heads lift off to reveal a cavity in the body, generally intended to store pipe tobacco.

Martinware, especially the sculptural pieces, is very popular with collectors, and as of 2015 the record auction price was US$196,000 for a bird jar. In December 2018, a large anthropomorphic grinning crab was sold at Phillips in New York for a hammer price of $220,000 (£184,000). It was subject to a temporary export ban from the UK and with the help of the Art Fund was purchased for £260,700 (total buyer’s costs plus VAT). It is now on display at The Box museum, Plymouth, which has over 100 examples of Martinware.

The Pottery was started in Fulham, London in 1873 by Robert Wallace Martin (1843–1923), who had trained as a sculptor. In 1877 the business was moved to Havelock Road,[citation needed] in the London suburb of Southall, Middlesex, where it remained and several of the brothers were ultimately buried in the cemetery along the road. Walter Fraser Martin (1857-1912) supplied the technical expertise, specializing in coloured glazes and became the firm’s specialist on the wheel; Edwin Bruce Martin (1860-1915) was the thrower and decorator whose work included most of the fish and flower designs; and Charles Douglas Martin (1846 – 1910) managed the shop. This was at 16 Brownlow St, High Holborn, and opened in 1878, but closed after a fire there in 1903.

They worked mainly with a saltglaze stoneware, fired at a high-temperature with salt thrown into the kiln during firing to create the ceramic glaze, which fused with the clay and gave a surface which could be glassy or matt depending on the conditions of each firing. Whereas many stoneware glazes are coloured and obscure the body underneath, the saltglaze method served to highlight the impressed and incised decoration on the surface of their pots. The colours included browns, greens, greys and blues, and this subdued palette is distinctive of Martinware.

Their most flamboyant design period was from about 1880–1900, and after 1900 their designs simplified somewhat, under the influence of Art Nouveau and Japonism.

Robert Wallace Martin, the oldest brother, had worked for a while for the architectural sculptor J. B. Phillips of Vauxhall Bridge Road, and later took drawing classes at the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Walter and Edwin Martin also studied there, and both worked for a time at the Royal Doulton Pottery, also in Lambeth.

The chancel arch in Ayot St Peter’s Church in Hertfordshire, is the only commission by the Martin Brothers for a church.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Stoneware
Artist: Martin Brothers (1873-1923)
Date: 1898

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Provenance: Presented by Barrie and Deedee Wigmore, 2019.

From Wikipedia

The four Martin Brothers were pottery manufacturers in London from 1873 to 1914. In their own day their Martinware was described as art pottery, and they were one of the earliest potteries making this, but in modern terms they fit better into the studio pottery category, which was invented later.

The four brothers (Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin) produced a distinctive type of stoneware pottery from the 1870s through to 1914, when their pottery closed, with a little work being produced through to 1923, when the last brother, Robert Wallace Martin, died. Their output included both vessels and figures. They were best known for their bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles, fashioned in a whimsical but highly skillful style. The “Wally Birds” vary, and do not represent any actual species, but generally have a large and rather fierce-looking beak, massive feet and talons, and a quizzical look in their large eyes, which have a rather human shape. Their heads lift off to reveal a cavity in the body, generally intended to store pipe tobacco.

Martinware, especially the sculptural pieces, is very popular with collectors, and as of 2015 the record auction price was US$196,000 for a bird jar. In December 2018, a large anthropomorphic grinning crab was sold at Phillips in New York for a hammer price of $220,000 (£184,000). It was subject to a temporary export ban from the UK and with the help of the Art Fund was purchased for £260,700 (total buyer’s costs plus VAT). It is now on display at The Box museum, Plymouth, which has over 100 examples of Martinware.

The Pottery was started in Fulham, London in 1873 by Robert Wallace Martin (1843–1923), who had trained as a sculptor. In 1877 the business was moved to Havelock Road,[citation needed] in the London suburb of Southall, Middlesex, where it remained and several of the brothers were ultimately buried in the cemetery along the road. Walter Fraser Martin (1857-1912) supplied the technical expertise, specializing in coloured glazes and became the firm’s specialist on the wheel; Edwin Bruce Martin (1860-1915) was the thrower and decorator whose work included most of the fish and flower designs; and Charles Douglas Martin (1846 – 1910) managed the shop. This was at 16 Brownlow St, High Holborn, and opened in 1878, but closed after a fire there in 1903.

They worked mainly with a saltglaze stoneware, fired at a high-temperature with salt thrown into the kiln during firing to create the ceramic glaze, which fused with the clay and gave a surface which could be glassy or matt depending on the conditions of each firing. Whereas many stoneware glazes are coloured and obscure the body underneath, the saltglaze method served to highlight the impressed and incised decoration on the surface of their pots. The colours included browns, greens, greys and blues, and this subdued palette is distinctive of Martinware.

Their most flamboyant design period was from about 1880–1900, and after 1900 their designs simplified somewhat, under the influence of Art Nouveau and Japonism.

Robert Wallace Martin, the oldest brother, had worked for a while for the architectural sculptor J. B. Phillips of Vauxhall Bridge Road, and later took drawing classes at the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Walter and Edwin Martin also studied there, and both worked for a time at the Royal Doulton Pottery, also in Lambeth.

The chancel arch in Ayot St Peter’s Church in Hertfordshire, is the only commission by the Martin Brothers for a church.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Stoneware
Artist: Martin Brothers (1873-1923)
Date: 1876

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

From Wikipedia

The four Martin Brothers were pottery manufacturers in London from 1873 to 1914. In their own day their Martinware was described as art pottery, and they were one of the earliest potteries making this, but in modern terms they fit better into the studio pottery category, which was invented later.

The four brothers (Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin) produced a distinctive type of stoneware pottery from the 1870s through to 1914, when their pottery closed, with a little work being produced through to 1923, when the last brother, Robert Wallace Martin, died. Their output included both vessels and figures. They were best known for their bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles, fashioned in a whimsical but highly skillful style. The “Wally Birds” vary, and do not represent any actual species, but generally have a large and rather fierce-looking beak, massive feet and talons, and a quizzical look in their large eyes, which have a rather human shape. Their heads lift off to reveal a cavity in the body, generally intended to store pipe tobacco.

Martinware, especially the sculptural pieces, is very popular with collectors, and as of 2015 the record auction price was US$196,000 for a bird jar. In December 2018, a large anthropomorphic grinning crab was sold at Phillips in New York for a hammer price of $220,000 (£184,000). It was subject to a temporary export ban from the UK and with the help of the Art Fund was purchased for £260,700 (total buyer’s costs plus VAT). It is now on display at The Box museum, Plymouth, which has over 100 examples of Martinware.

The Pottery was started in Fulham, London in 1873 by Robert Wallace Martin (1843–1923), who had trained as a sculptor. In 1877 the business was moved to Havelock Road,[citation needed] in the London suburb of Southall, Middlesex, where it remained and several of the brothers were ultimately buried in the cemetery along the road. Walter Fraser Martin (1857-1912) supplied the technical expertise, specializing in coloured glazes and became the firm’s specialist on the wheel; Edwin Bruce Martin (1860-1915) was the thrower and decorator whose work included most of the fish and flower designs; and Charles Douglas Martin (1846 – 1910) managed the shop. This was at 16 Brownlow St, High Holborn, and opened in 1878, but closed after a fire there in 1903.

They worked mainly with a saltglaze stoneware, fired at a high-temperature with salt thrown into the kiln during firing to create the ceramic glaze, which fused with the clay and gave a surface which could be glassy or matt depending on the conditions of each firing. Whereas many stoneware glazes are coloured and obscure the body underneath, the saltglaze method served to highlight the impressed and incised decoration on the surface of their pots. The colours included browns, greens, greys and blues, and this subdued palette is distinctive of Martinware.

Their most flamboyant design period was from about 1880–1900, and after 1900 their designs simplified somewhat, under the influence of Art Nouveau and Japonism.

Robert Wallace Martin, the oldest brother, had worked for a while for the architectural sculptor J. B. Phillips of Vauxhall Bridge Road, and later took drawing classes at the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Walter and Edwin Martin also studied there, and both worked for a time at the Royal Doulton Pottery, also in Lambeth.

The chancel arch in Ayot St Peter’s Church in Hertfordshire, is the only commission by the Martin Brothers for a church.

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Material: Stoneware
Artist: Martin Brothers (1873-1923)
Date: 1898

Image Details
Date: 28 March 2024
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of an Ashmolean Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

Image details
Date: 21 May 2023
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/49s
ISO: 250
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Object description
Type: Ceramics
Location: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne & Wear
Material: Stoneware
Artist: Alan H. Adams (1892-1988)
Date: c. 1930

Image details
Date: 15 April 2023
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 200
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International