Who Is Charles Vyse Figure?

Vyse and a new Partnership The evolving partnership of Charles Vyse and Barbara Waller (1949-1951) would prove to be exacting and industrious. Working at the Cheyne Row studio they produced a number of animal and figure models, alongside a range of Chinese inspired high-fired, ash glazed stoneware vessels. Whether by design or accident, much of the figurative work of Vyse and Waller partnership, would in the future, prove problematical for collectors. However, at this remove, it is difficult to attribute

evolving partnership of Charles Vyse and Barbara Waller (1949-1951) would prove to be exacting and industrious. From the Cheyne Row studio, they produced a number of animal and figure models, alongside a range of Chinese inspired high-fired, ash glazed stoneware vessels. Whether by design or accident, much of the figurative work of Vyse and Waller partnership, would in the future, prove problematical for collectors. At this remove, it is difficult to attribute some figures and vessels, either jointly

Nineteen Twenty Eight Vyse had known for some time that his mother, 76 year old Sarah Ann Vyse, was ailing. Therefore, he was not surprised when he received a letter advising him to come at once to Havelock Place, Shelton, her condition was deteriorating, and she wanted him at her bedside. There was no possibility of Nell Vyse accompanying him, they had a potting business to run, and she must take control of the studio. Vyse caught the next suitable train bound for the Potteries. His mother died

Nineteen Twenty Eight For some time, Vyse had known his mother, Sarah Ann Vyse, aged 76, had been ailing. He was however, surprised to receive a letter from his sister, advising him to come at once to Havelock Place, Shelton, his mother’s condition had deteriorated, and she had asked for him. There was no possibility of Nell Vyse accompanying him, she had to remain in Chelsea to oversee the Pottery business. Vyse, a dutiful son, arranged to travel to the Potteries as soon as was practicable. However

The Kings Head and Eight Bells Invariably, Vyse went to the Kings Head and Eight Bells for a lunchtime pint of beer and a sandwich. The public house, separated from the Thames’ Embankment by a narrow garden, and situated at the corner of Cheyne Row and Cheyne Walk. During the 1950s, the pub was the place where actors, writers, and film people gathered to meet friends and concurring people. The photograph, (Fig. 190) shows Charles Vyse, and Barbara Waller conversing with the film actor Richard Attenborough

and keen to acquire one of the new electric-fired kilns, Harry Parr often discussed with Charles Vyse the pros and cons of kiln firing. Vyse was of the opinion that gas was best, and Parr was one of the first potters to bring electricity to the Cheyne Row studios. Vyse however, continued to fire his figures using the gas-fuelled kiln he had acquired when Bertha White became his assistant in 1919. From 1920, Vyse and Parr consistently showed their work at the Royal Academy. Parr organised one or two

Nineteen Fifty Three At the Royal Academy exhibition of 1953, Vyse showed a work modelled in stoneware titled Group (RA1308). A second work, and equally intriguing, a stoneware composition titled Sussex Gypsy (RA 1311). No details are available of these intriguing works. For his third work Vyse modelled his most favourite of animals, a stoneware composition titled Recumbent Cat (RA1332) (Fig. 187). At the same exhibition, Harry Parr was showing a painting titled, Tennis at Little Felcourt (RA848)

Nineteen Thirty The nineteen-twenties had been a decade of trial and experimentation, for Charles and Nell Vyse, they were an artistic and a commercial success and they looked forward to the coming decade as one of consolidation. Additionally, in England and the United States collectors eagerly sought their earthenware figures. Characteristically, Charles Vyse viewed himself as the doyen of studio pottery making, with an over-weaning sense of his own importance. Alternatively, as Harry Parr would

Nineteen Twenty It has long been popular for figure-makers to represent in pottery, famous individuals of previous eras, either real or imaginary. The mass produced chimney-pieces of Staffordshire often illustrated heroes and villains of the day. The Chelsea and Bow figure makers, if not depicting dainty shepherds and shepherdesses, found inspiration in deities and allegories of classical antiquity. Charles Vyse chose his modern subjects from people who were unaffected by the aesthetic values and

White From 1919, Vyse worked single-handedly in his Cheyne Row studio. However, it soon became apparent to Vyse that he required a capable assistant to relieve him of minor studio chores. For instance, the making of secondary plaster moulds was a time-consuming process, which Vyse felt he could not spare. Bertha White (1900- nd.) came to him with a recommendation from his former Art School in Hanley where she had studied modelling. She was aged about nineteen when she joined Vyse at Cheyne Row.16

to make his beautiful earthenware figures. When we begged without much hope, that he should save some of them, he defended his act

Farnham, Vyse would often return to London to carry out modelling work at his Cheyne Row studio. After he had some other essential facilities installed, Vyse lived and slept in the studio, it was his permanent London address. He also liked to visit Cheyne Cottage at Deal, although the military designated Deal as ‘a closed town’ fearing enemy attacks, property owners were not bound by this injunction. At the height of the London blitz, the Vyses’ flat in the Fulham Road was demolished. Nell Vyse and her

The Revivalists A friend of Charles and Nell Vyse, the artist William Stott 14 had lately leased one of the Cheyne Row studios, and not long after settling in he proposed that he should paint a conversation piece, depicting both the Vyses at work in their studio. Titled The Revivalists by Stott, the painting completed by 1921, and exhibited by him at the Royal Academy (RA 17) in the same year. It was an opportune advertising coup for the Vyses, as Vyse was showing two figurative works in the same

Why Charles and Nell Vyse all but abandoned figure decoration is debatable. A possible reason may be attributed to the art critic Bernard Rackham 33 who in 1921, applauded the desirability of the monochrome glazed figurines, a point previously commented on in this book. During the early 1920s, monochrome glazed figurines were modish, and Nell Vyse viewed the move to a plain glaze a ‘modern’. Furthermore, should the monochromatic venture prove to be successful, they would profit from the saving in

Nineteen Thirty Eight Regardless of the despondency at the prospect of war with Germany generated throughout the country at large, the Vyses’ annual show opened as scheduled at Walker’s Galleries on Wednesday, 30th November 1938. It was the Vyses’ eleventh successive exhibition and although they did not envisage such a far-reaching event, it proved to be their final joint exhibition. Writing in Walker’s Monthly magazine, J L Naimaster reinforcing the mood of the time: Though international crises