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Torquay pottery or Torquay ware is pottery made in Torquay, Devon, England, using local clay, at one of fifteen or so local potteries chiefly serving the tourist trade,[1][2][3][4] but also supplying high-end retailers such as Liberty of London.[3]
The commonest form was mottoware - pottery such as plates or jugs decorated with inspirational or humorous text,[4] often written in a Devon dialect,[2] and thus known as Devon mottoware.[5] Some items were produced in Cornish dialect, for "export" to, and sale in, Cornwall.[5] Novelty items with no functional use were also produced, but are rarer.[4]
The first pottery, the "Watcombe Terra Cotta Clay Company"[3] (later Watcombe Pottery; acquired in 1901 by the nearby Aller Vale Pottery), was established in 1875 by G. J. Allen, after he discovered a particularly fine clay in the grounds of Watcombe House.[3][4][6]
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Other potteries included the Longpark Pottery (1883; originally the "Longpark China and Terracotta Works"[6]), in the Long Park district, which closed in 1957;[7] Lemon & Crute; Torquay Terra-Cotta Company; and the St. Marychurch Pottery.[3]
Notable potters included Blanche Georgiana Vulliamy.
![Thumb](#/media/File:Vintge_Torquay_Pottery_Sailing_Ship_Motto_Ware_Mug_"_For_A_Good_Boy"_-_1.jpg)
A Torquay Pottery Collectors' Society, established in 1976, encourages the study and collection of such wares.[1] The society organised an exhibition, "Torquay Pottery: A Local Story" at Newton Abbot Town Museum in 2001.[8] a North American Torquay Society was formed in 1990, for the same purpose.[9]
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