Pretty in Pink...

A while ago I was sent this photo.

Then it turned out this was only part of the pink collection. Here's some more!

All this quite took my breath away - and I hope the collector has it well insured. This pink glaze was not easy to apply evenly, and consequently there is not much pink Crown Lynn ware around. Ernie Cooper, who began at Crown Lynn in the early 1960s and rose to the position of chief chemist then factory manager told me this: "Interestingly the pink colour was made from one of the Blythe Colour works glaze stains (I even remember the number stain 8005) consisting of Chrome/Tin which suffered from an unusual firing fault called white spot. If there was any organic contaminant in the glaze before firing it would cause localised reduction in the glazing kiln resulting in a very noticeable white spot about 3-5 mm in diameter. By the way these cups were dipped in glaze rather than being sprayed, a very interesting and locally produced dipping system was used for this purpose."

 All this made me start thinking about the lack of pink in my collection. Here's my solitary cup and saucer set, which is spoken for - Pete, it's still here waiting for you!

It is possible that as well as the technical difficulties, pink simply wasn't as fashionable as some other colours.  Judging by the amount of chocolate brown, teal blue and olive green colourglaze ware around, there is little doubt that they were the front runners at the time.  Anyway, for the record, here's the rest of my pink collection. A kitchen bowl, backstamped Aero British:

And my mostly-pink dessert bowl, backstamped Tudor.

 

That's about it for me. Unlike some, I definitely can't claim the title of Pink Princess.

More next time
Happy collecting!
ValM