Susie Cooper

Susan Vera Cooper was born near Burslem in the English Potteries on 29th October 1902. The youngest of seven children she showed an early interest in drawing and painting and attended evening classes at Burslem School of Art where her abilities grew with encouragement from her tutor, ceramic designer Gordon Forsyth, and family.

Unable to go to the Royal College of Art due to lack of industrial experience she found employment at A.E.Gray pottery as a paintress. Here she shoed a natural talent for decorating china and soon gained promotion to become the resident designer. Her colourful geometric and floral patterns were a great success and were marked with her own backstamp.

After about seven years she left Grays to set up her own firm to give herself greater freedom over style and design. A faltering first few months at the George Street pottery in Tunstall where there was only one firing of the kiln, led to her landlord going bankrupt and forcing her to find new premises at the Chelsea Works in Burslem in 1930.

From this point her business grew and became known for affordable, yet stylish designs that had a wide appeal among the growing band of middle class Britain. Innovative decorating techniques and shapes such as 'Kestral' brought her to the forefront of the pottery industry up to the outbreak of war.

After the war she continued to forge ahead with new designs in response to changes in public taste. For collectors it is the early work up until 1939 that holds the attraction while the work from the 1950,s has, at the moment , less appeal. In the 1960's she could no longer hold out against the large potteries and in 1966 she was bought out by the Wedgwood group. She was still designing up to her death in 1995 and will always be regarded as one of the greatest pioneers of twentieth century ceramic design.