Stock No: 12582

A rare Martinware saltglaze ceramic fireplace surround by Robert Wallace Martin of the renowned 19th century Fulham Pottery Martin Brothers (1873 to 1923). The pottery later moved to Havelock Road in Southall, London.

This example, dated 1881, features nine architectural panels, incised with scrolling flowers and foliage panels containing serpents, dragons and mythical beasts, panels of oak leaf and acorns. The sides with further incised panels of scrolling foliage with birds and squirrels, glazed ochre, brown and blue, other marks, impressed mark to bottom right corner.

Notes: The four Martin Brothers, Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin, produced a distinctive type of stoneware pottery, called Martinware, from the 1870s through to the First World War, with a little work being produced through to 1923 when their pottery closed.
Robert Wallace Martin, the eldest 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.


Link to: Antique Victorian, William IV and Edwardian fireplaces and chimneypieces.