Keith Murray

Keith Day Pierce Murray was born in Auckland, New Zealand on the 5th July, 1892. His Father Charles was fron Scotalnd and his Mother Lillian had been born in Nelson on New Zealand's South Island.

Murray trained as an architect in London in 1919 and although he qualified easily, a lack of work forced him to make a living as an illustrator for magazines. In 1928 he held his own show at Le Levre Gallery in London but this was not to prove his passion. His trips to Paris, where he saw Freanch and Scandinavian glass were to stimulate his career change.

Murray first approached Arthur Marriott Powell about the possiblity of working in Whitefriars Glass in London. Though his ideas proved unsuitable for their style of glass, he worked as a freelance designer at Stevens & Williams in the West Midlands in 1932. The trial pieces were shown in London that year and the 'Keith Murray range' was produced. Between 1932 and 1939 he produced over 1200 designs though many were only issued in quantities of six or twelve.

Murray was invited to the Wedgewood factory in Staffordshire by Josiah Wedgewood V who had taken over in 1930. Struggling after the Wall Street Crash, Wedgewood had the insight to recognise Keith's skills and he was asked to design some modern shapes using existing techniques. His first job was assiting Tom Wedgewood with a range of dinner and teaware called Annular - plain shapes with horizontal ribbing.

From this design he produced a large series of bowls and vases with the pieces using the skills of the throwers which were decorated by lathe-turning, a Wedgewood skill from the previous Century. This enabled very precise shapes to be made in large quantities.

From the beginning Murray's stature was recognised as every piece bore his signatiure above the prestigious Wedgewood mark.

The first shape was a 7 inch high horizontally ribbed bowl. The shapes were covered in quality, matt glazes that were pioneered by Norman Wilson in 1927. The inital glaze range was matt Green, Matt Straw, Windsor Grey and Moonstone. These new styles of shapes and glazes were unlike anything else on the market and the wares created a sensation in Britain.

A mass of shapes then appeared which became best sellers. Now being hailed as 'Classics' such as the 'Football vase' which was introduced in 1933 and produced until the 60's.