Examples of Studio Szeiler Ware

Examples of Studio Szeiler Ware

click for more information:

details of the marks used by Szeiler

details of the Chelsea Pottery Works

Szeiler shoe

this item has the mark
Studio Szeiler
Hanley
England

Joseph Szeiler started his figure manufacturing business
in the town of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
- he operated here from c.1951 to 1955 when he moved to the Chelsea Works in nearby Burslem -

Hand painted, pottery pig by Szeiler. designed as a 'Pork Dripping' pot and is in the form of a lidded pigs head. Size is 3 1/4"tall and approx 3 1/2"diameter. mark is c.1962+	3 inches tall SZEILER,MADE IN ENGLAND stamp on base

Szeiler -Toby- Owain Glyndwr Size 4" x 4.75" Model no:131	Szeiler sitting cow - 2.75 INCHES TALL with the c.1956+ mark

This is a page from the original Studio Szeiler illustrated catalogue.

a page from one of the original Studio Szeiler illustrated catalogues

After Joseph Szeiler died around 1980 the works were continued by a friend of his, Edward Nother - Generally keeping the place running was a huge struggle; they were unable to compete with the large quantities of cheap housewares and ‘cutsie’ animals that were pouring in from overseas, there were restrictions with the site and its rightly protected bottle kiln, and no money to invest for improvements - however one very successful order they did recieve was from the gift shop at the London Zoo.

The modelling on some of the pieces is exquisite

London zoo ordered hundreds and hundreds of animals, and where there wasn’t a mould for one particular type, they simply changed the decoration on a common mould. Hence a brown bear, a badger and a polar bear all came from the same mould; a close look at these will show the face shape is quite wrong for a couple of them!

There was no more modelling done after Joseph died, and production focussed more on the lifelike animals whose range was enormous and included obscure ones like armadillos, lizards and rhinos.

The modelling on some of these is exquisite. It was these that were bought by the London Zoo and probably Bristol Zoo. None the less the company still produced much of the more eccentric animals and table wares, money boxes etc. which are synonymous with Szeiler Studio.

a brown bear, a badger and a polar bear all came from the same mould
a close look at these will show the face shape is quite wrong for a couple of them!

Questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks