Tracy Bentley revived the Burslem Pottery name in 2009, after years painting at Cobridge Stoneware, Moorcroft, Country Artists and Border Fine Arts. The studio fires its stoneware from inside Middleport Pottery on Port Street, ST6 3PE, in the heritage quarter of the Mother Town. The grotesque collection, Six Towns pride vases, decorated tiles and lamps. Bespoke commission a core line. The marks TB and TAB on every piece.
Burslem · the Mother Town · the studio is here.
Each line in the studio shares the same bench, the same kiln, the same hand. The grotesque collection is the named signature; the rest carry the same firing record and the same TB and TAB marks.
Named characters, no two alike, fired to high stoneware. Bailiff, Albert, and the wider bestiary. Each piece thrown and finished by Tracy on the Port Street bench, iron-red and copper glazes pulled across the body, sealed by stoneware firing.
A six-vase set, one decorated for each of the Six Towns of the Potteries: Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton. Hand-decorated by Tracy in cobalt and bottle-green, framed by the bottle-oven silhouette that gives Stoke its skyline.
Hand-decorated tiles drawn from canal scenes, farming life and the football. Stoneware lamps wired in the studio. Decorated vases in the Moorcroft register, made from original Cobridge Stoneware and Moorcroft moulds the studio still has rights to.
Bespoke commission pieces are a core line. A figure modelled for a sitter, a vase decorated with a family commission scene, a wedding piece, a retirement gift. The studio takes the brief at the bench, sketches the figure, fires the result. No two alike.
The original Burslem Pottery worked from the same Port Street quarter that the studio occupies today. The name passed out of trade in 1935. In 2009, after years painting at Cobridge Stoneware, Moorcroft, Country Artists and Border Fine Arts, Tracy Bentley acquired the name and the original moulds, and reopened the studio inside Middleport Pottery.
The grotesque collection is the signature line, inspired by the Victorian Martin Brothers, the four brothers who made stoneware grotesque birds and creatures from a small studio in Southall between 1873 and 1923. Bailiff and Albert are named figures in the Burslem range. HRH Prince Charles visited the studio for a working demonstration. The photograph hangs in the studio today, alongside the wheel.
Seventeen years on the Port Street bench. The same kiln, the same hand, the same Mother Town.
The original Burslem Pottery is established in the heart of the Mother Town, in the same Port Street quarter the studio occupies today.
The original pottery ceases operations. The name passes out of trade.
After years painting at Cobridge Stoneware, Moorcroft, Country Artists and Border Fine Arts, Tracy acquires the Burslem Pottery name and the original moulds, and reopens the studio at Port Street.
The grotesque collection emerges as the signature line, inspired by the Victorian Martin Brothers. Bailiff and Albert are introduced as named figures.
The studio hosts a working demonstration for HRH Prince Charles. The photograph hangs in the studio today.
Seventeen years on, the studio fires its stoneware from inside Middleport Pottery on Port Street, ST6 3PE. The marks TB and TAB on every piece.
Tracy welcomes you to Burslem Pottery, producing the antiques of the future. From the studio, on Port Street
Stoneware is the pottery body that the Stoke kilns made famous. Fired to roughly 1240 degrees, the clay vitrifies, sealing without a separate waterproof glaze. The grotesque collection, the Six Towns vases, the decorated tiles and the lamps all go through the same firing programme on the Port Street bench. Original moulds from Cobridge Stoneware and Moorcroft sit on the studio shelf, in continued use.
Degrees Celsius · the firing peakThe high-stoneware peak the kiln reaches over a six-hour ramp. Vitrification sets in around 1230. The hold at peak is what gives the body its dense, slightly metallic ring.
Tracy Bentley\u2019s artist markStamped on every piece Tracy works on herself. TAB appears on pieces from the studio team. The mark sits on the underside, next to the firing date.
The original founding yearThe pottery name was first founded in 1894. The original moulds, Cobridge Stoneware and Moorcroft inheritance, sit on the studio shelf in continued use.
Open hours per trading dayTuesday to Saturday, 10:30 to 15:00. The eccentric trading window is a studio working pattern, the rest of the day given to the wheel, the bench and the kiln.
Bespoke commission pieces are a core line and a fair share of the studio\u2019s annual work. Email the studio with what you have in mind, send any sitter photographs you have, and Tracy will come back with a sketch and an indicative price within the working week.
For everything else, the fastest answer is the phone, on 01782 824551, or the mobile 07980 016588, Tuesday to Saturday between 10:30 and 15:00.
Unit 2A Port Street
Burslem
Stoke-on-Trent ST6 3PE
The studio sits inside Middleport Pottery, the working pottery on the canal. Walking distance from the Moorcroft Heritage Visitor Centre and the Burgess and Leigh works. Burslem is the Mother Town of the Potteries, the historic centre of the six pottery towns: Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton. Park on Port Street or at the Middleport Pottery visitor car park.
Yes. Every piece in the studio is thrown, cast, hand-decorated, glazed and fired at the Port Street bench in Burslem. Tracy works on the figures herself, with the studio team handling the bird and animal sculpting on the Andrew Hull and Rob Tabbanor designs. The marks TB and TAB on the underside of each piece are Tracy’s artist marks, and the firing record sits in the studio log. You can come in Tuesday to Saturday between 10:30 and 15:00 and see the bench, the kilns and the work in progress.
Yes. Bespoke commission pieces are a core line and a fair share of the studio’s annual work. Email the studio with what you have in mind, send any sitter photographs you have, and Tracy will come back with a sketch and an indicative price within the working week. Wedding pieces, retirement gifts, sitter portraits in stoneware, family commission scenes painted on a vase, all welcome.
No. The mocks in the proposal show what the rebuilt site will look like, and you sign off on the design before any production code is written. If you have brand assets, the studio respects them. If you do not, you will get a coherent visual language out of the project and own it afterwards. We can also work together to get the vibe you want into the website, and I will make sure it is SEO optimised for the Stoke ceramic-collector search terms.
The grotesque collection takes its lineage from the Victorian Martin Brothers, the four brothers who made grotesque stoneware birds and creatures from a small studio in Southall between 1873 and 1923. Bailiff and Albert are two of the named figures in the Burslem range. Each is hand-thrown, hand-finished, fired to high stoneware, and glazed in iron-red and copper. They are characters, not anonymous decoration, and each comes with a name and a story stamped in the studio log.
Unit 2A Port Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent ST6 3PE. The studio sits inside Middleport Pottery, the working pottery on the canal, walking distance from the Moorcroft Heritage Visitor Centre and the Burgess and Leigh works. Burslem is the Mother Town of the Potteries, the historic centre of the six pottery towns. Park on Port Street directly or at the Middleport Pottery visitor car park, both on-street.