Rye Pottery Trio of Vases w. Sgraffito

A trio of vases decorated using the sgraffito technique, designed and made at Rye Pottery, England, circa 1953. Charmingly, the form of each of the vessels has been designed to accommodate a different flower arrangement. 

The tallest cylindrical vessel has an uninterrupted wide-mouth for a conventional bouquet. Whilst the mouth of the smallest straight sided vase closes in on to itself to form a smaller opening for a spray of flowers. Smaller still is the mouth of the hourglass shaped vase which could be described as a bud vase, intended to hold a single, stemmed flower.

The vases also differ in colour but they are united by the Sgraffito decoration in their respective pink, green, and black glaze. All the vases have first had a white tin-glaze applied to them, then their unique colour has been applied all over the exterior area. Finally, lines have been scratched through to the white glaze beneath. Rye pottery employed the sgraffito technique in their work, to much success, shortly after their inclusion at The Festival of Britain in 1951.