Dora May Billington (1890–1968) was an English teacher of

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and po ...

, a writer and a

studio potter Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...

. Her own work explored the possibilities of painting on

Life and career

Dora Billington was born into a family of potters in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

, specifically Tunstall. From 1905 to 1910 she attended Tunstall School of Art and later

Hanley School of Art The Stoke-on-Trent Regional College of Art was one of three colleges that were merged in 1971 to form North Staffordshire Polytechnic (later renamed as Staffordshire Polytechnic and now Staffordshire University). The College of Art achieved Regi ...

, becoming a teacher assistant in her final year. She worked as a decorator for Bernard Moore, 1910–1912 and then studied at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It of ...

(RCA) 1912–1916 and the Slade School of Art.John Farleigh, ''The Creative Craftsman'', London: G.Bell & Sons, 1950 At the RCA she studied in the design department under

W. R. Lethaby William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 – 17 July 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of co ...

and was taught calligraphy by Edward Johnston, embroidery by Grace Christie and pottery by Richard Lunn. Billington remained an amateur embroiderer and an occasional writer on textiles. Lunn died in 1915 at the age of about 75 and Billington was asked to take over his class with

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

(who later ran the

Poole Pottery Poole Pottery is a British pottery brand, now based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. As a company, it was founded in 1873 on Poole quayside in Dorset, where it continued to produce pottery by hand before moving its factory operations ...

). She taught pottery at the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and ...

from 1919 and left the RCA in 1925 when

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

appointed William Staite Murray as pottery instructor. The circumstances of her leaving remain somewhat unclear. By that date Rothenstein had been in place for five years, and although he supported Billington's work he criticised the teaching of pottery and other crafts as "too unexperimental and derivative. No consistent attempt appears to have been made to deal with the interpretation of the contemporary world in design and execution... the research work towards the discovery of new subject matter and new treatment, so noticeable on the Continent, seem to have been wanting." In 1938 she became head of department at the Central School, assisted by Gilbert Harding Green. Her teaching emphasised the importance of hand building as the first stage of working with clay but all students were expected to learn to throw on the wheel. She had an extensive knowledge of glaze technology and the history of ceramics. Among her students were Quentin Bell, William Newland, Gordon Baldwin,

Ruth Duckworth Ruth Duckworth (April 10, 1919 – October 18, 2009) was a modernist sculptor who specialized in ceramics, she worked in stoneware, porcelain, and bronze. Her sculptures are mostly untitled. She is best known for ''Clouds over Lake Michig ...

, Alan Caiger-Smith, Margaret Hine,

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

, Ann Wynn-Reeves,

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie Katherine (sometimes known as Katharine) Harriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie (7 June 1895 – 1985) was a pioneer in modern English studio pottery, known for her wood-ash glazes. Biography Pleydell-Bouverie was born into an aristocratic family a ...

Stella Rebecca Crofts Stella Rebecca Crofts (9 January 1898 – 1964) was a British artist who had a prolific career creating paintings, sculpture and pottery. Biography Crofts was born in Nottingham and raised at Ilford in Essex. Due to extended periods of ill-hea ...

, Ursula Mommens, Ray Finch and Valentinos Charalambous. She retired from her post at the Central in 1955 when Gilbert Harding Green became Head of Department. At the Paris Expo (the

International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (french: Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes) was a World's fair held in Paris, France, from April to October 1925. It was designed by the Fren ...

) in 1925 Billington was awarded Bronze for her stained glass ‘St Joan’. She also exhibited mosaic. The ceramics courses at the RCA and Central School also received awards. In the 1950s Billington gathered around herself at the Central School of Arts and Crafts a team of teachers who represented an alternative to

Bernard Leach Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery". Biography Early years (Japan) Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...

’s Eastern aesthetic of utilitarian stoneware vessels glazed in muted colours, and the School became associated with brightly decorated

tin-glazed earthenware Tin-glazed pottery is earthenware covered in lead glaze with added tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque (see tin-glazing for the chemistry); usually this provides a background for brightly painted decoration. It has been important in ...

made by her protégées Alan-Caiger Smith, William Newland, Margaret Hine, Ann Wynn-Reeves and Nicholas Vergette. She was President of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society from 1949 and was involved with the Crafts Centre of Great Britain in London, which was chaired by her colleague

John Farleigh John Farleigh (16 June 1900 – 30 March 1965), also known as Frederick William Charles Farleigh, was an English wood-engraver, noted for his illustrations of George Bernard Shaw's work ''The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for Go ...

, and she selected the ceramics shown there. She was also involved with the Smithsonian touring Exhibition of British Artist Craftsmen in the 1950s. Her book ''The Art of the Potter'' (1937), was the first to relate contemporary craft practice to its historical context and in ''The Technique of Pottery'' (1962) she gave a comprehensive account of different methods of working. Since the 1980s there has been an increased interest in her influence on twentieth century British

studio pottery Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...

.Jones, Jeffrey, ''In Search of the Picassoettes''
/ref>

Selected publications

* ''The Art of the Potter'', Oxford, OUP, 1937 * ''The Technique of Pottery'', London, Batsford, 1962 , revised edition 1972

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billington, Dora 1890 births 1968 deaths English potters Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People from Tunstall, Staffordshire Women potters 20th-century ceramists British women ceramicists

Life and career

Selected publications

References

Further reading

External links