Nothing on the dinner table shouts ‘1950s’ louder than the patterns designed for Midwinter by Jessie Tait and Terence Conran. Motifs featuring modernist circles, squares and stripes, and spiky sketchy drawings have become icons of the era and their desirability to collectors shows no sign of waning.
Putting these designs on TVshaped plates and curvaceous coffee pots was a huge departure for a traditional Staffordshire pottery during the first half of the 1950s, when tableware was still dominated by floral themes. They were the result of a highly creative collaboration between Roy Midwinter, son of the firm’s founder, and Jessie Tait, a local art-school graduate, who became his head designer. ‘She could interpret his ideas and make them workable,’ says Steven Jenkins, collector and author of‘She loved the job and turned out design after design.’