20061009

Carlton Ware egg cups



It's uncommon to find a pottery so strongly linked to the egg cups' world as the English Carlton Ware company. The firm, now defunct, has produced a wide range of pieces in different styles, the Walking Ware type being probably the most popular and undoubtedly the most influential of them all. Created at the beginning of the 1970s by Roger Michel and Danka Napiorkowska, both funding members of the Lustre Ware, the Walking Ware concept concerned not only egg cups, but plenty of different pieces like, for instance, mugs. Nevertheless, the vision of footed eggs certainly had a particular appeal that other pieces lacked. The range was introduced to the market in 1975 and it died when the company closed its doors, at the the end of the 1980s. But Carlton Ware (or Carltonware, as some call it) wasn't only about Walking Ware. It created also an important number of other pieces, some of them for merchandising purposes, like the Guinness or the Hovis egg cups, and some of them for external designers, like the Fluck & Law series. Carlton Ware is considered nowadays an extremely collectable name, and it's a known fact that some imitations have reached the market.

Known details: 1) Boss egg cup, marked "Carlton Ware, Made In England, Trade Mark" and "Lustre Pottery, 1976" [eggcup2580]; 2) from the Bean Bag series, produced in 1980, exists also in red [eggcup2392]; 3) marked "Carlton Ware, England, Lustre Poterry, 1980" [eggcup0030]; 4) from a series of crocodile-like objects produced during the last years of activity of the company [eggcups0940]; 5) from a series of objects related to Hovis Bakery firm, marked "Carlton W., England", [eggcup0504, bought in 1986]; 6) Wellingtons' model from the Walking Ware collection, exists also with black boots, marked "Carlton Ware, England, Lustre Pottery, 1980", [eggcup0018]; 7) produced in 1980, known as Big Foot egg cup; 8) covered model, produced in 1978 [eggcup3979].

Please don't forget that there are more Carlton Ware egg cups in other posts: you will find this Fluck & Law Prince Charles egg cup in the Famous people egg cups category, a funny egg shaped model in the Egg shaped egg cups family, and the first one of the Guinness egg cups in the Advertising and merchandising egg cups selection.