Side plate

Classification(s):
Pottery
Date: c.1951 - 1976
Organisation: Porsgrund (Norway, founded 1885)
Dimensions:
21 × 190 mm (2.1 × 19 cm)
Medium: Ceramic, glaze
Object number: P863Q
Place of Production:Norway
DescriptionGlazed ceramic side plate by Porsgrund, made in Norway. The ovenware plate is speckled green in colour with a thin white rim.

Makers mark to base “Porsgrund Norway”.

ProvenanceThis object was originally acquired from The Primavera Gallery, London.

This object was originally acquired for the Inner London Education Authority’s (ILEA) ‘Circulating Design Scheme’ collection.

The collection was instigated by the London Country Council (later the Greater London Council) and the Council of Industrial Design (COID). The collection’s original purpose was concerned with the teaching and dissemination of modern, ‘good design’.

The collection was established in 1951/52 as the ‘Experiment in Design Appreciation’, later renamed the ‘Circulating Design Scheme’.

The Circulating Design Scheme lent boxed showcases to London schools. The showcases contained handling objects, material samples and interpretation on a specific subject.

COID withdrew its involvement in the Scheme in 1957. After which time, it was managed exclusively by the London County Council from 1957-1963.

After the administrative restructuring of London authorities, the Scheme was jointly managed by the Greater London Council and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) from 1963 – 1976.

The Scheme was operational until 1976 when the collections were withdrawn from circulation. ILEA was abolished in the late 1980s and the collection was donated to Camberwell College of Arts in 1989/90.

ILEA was responsible for secondary and tertiary education in the inner London boroughs, this included Camberwell.


NotesThis object was circulated to London schools as part of the Inner London Education Authority’s (I.L.E.A) Circulating Design Scheme, which operated from 1951-1976. The side plate featured in the ‘Scandinavia Industrial Art from four countries’ group in case number 1. The boxed showcase describes how the climate of Scandinavian countries is partly responsible for the house and its furnishings holding “a very special position as the centre of domestic and social life”, because Scandinavians spend much more time indoors than the people of Southern Europe. The boxed showcase describes how traditional Scandinavian household articles were made by hand in traditional forms, “which bear a stamp of necessity and simplicity”. The boxed showcase describes how modern industrial products of Scandinavia reveal their ancestry in their “plain ‘good sense’ design”, which is suited to machine production. However, the text also notes that Scandinavian firms continue hand-craft production of more expensive goods, in addition to mass produced products. This object was originally acquired from The Primavera Gallery, London. The associated record card indicates the boxed showcase was in use from 1968-76. Original photograph of boxed showcase copyright Harold King (Photography) Ltd, Morden, Surrey.