Louise Powell, née Lessore, came from an elite pedigree of artists and pottery designers, including some familial connections to the Wedgwood factory. Her grandfather, Émile Lessore, designed ceramics for Sèvres, Minton, and Wedgwood. Her sister, Thérèse Lessore, was a prominent painter and the founder of the London Group, and her father, Jules, was a painter and pottery designer. Growing up in such an artistic environment, it’s no surprise that she herself entered into that world, enrolling in the Central School of Arts and Crafts where she studied calligraphy and illumination. At the Royal School of Art Needlework she became acquainted with May Morris, and later worked for her father William Morris at his studio creating designs and illuminations.

In 1906 Louise married Alfred Powell, an architect by trade who at the time was designing and painting pottery for Wedgwood. Upon Louise’s first visit to the factory, she discovered 18th-century pattern books for hand-painted borders on creamware. She was instantly entranced by the simple yet elegant designs and proposed to Wedgwood that she and Alfred recreate that line of hand-painted wares.

The Powells prescribed to the Arts & Crafts Movement’s tenet of the importance of handcraft and its positive effects on workers’ happiness and productivity. The Wedgwood factory had excelled at the mass-production of handmade pottery, with hundreds of workers creating thousands of hand-painted vessels of the same design with little variance. Near the end of the 19th century, though, the factory’s output of hand-painted designs waned in favor of faster production and in-vogue wares (majolica, e.g.).The couple proposed to revive the painting tradition and establish a Handcraft department at the factory. Wedgwood management agreed, and the Powells opened studios in Bloomsbury and the Cotswolds as well as at the Wedgwood factory.

Out of these studios came beautifully painted art objects; Alfred’s designs often featuring animals and architectural elements while Louise utilized her artistic education in illumination, calligraphy, and patterning to create floral and geometric designs. Louise’s calligraphic training is especially reflected in the present vase, with its delicately painted sprigs of berries rendered with a script-like flourish. The Powells’ emphasis on the artist’s hand and individuality is evident in the presence of Louise’s signature: artists at Wedgwood were rarely allowed to sign their work (it is interesting to note that her grandfather’s Wedgwood pieces were signed).

The Powells’ Handcraft studio as well as Louise’s own work laid the foundation for future women at the factory, including artists such as Millicent Taplin and Star Wedgwood who she trained as pupils.

BT

Excellent. Scattered silver enamel drips from original production.

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Alfred and Louise Powell, thence by descent in the Powell family