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(b Viipuri (now Vyborg, Russia) 1911; d Santorini, Greece, 1989).

Finnish ceramic and glass designer. In 1945 he joined Arabia porcelain factory, where he dispensed with the notion of the china set in favour of mix and match tableware. His best known series was ‘Kilta’ (designed in 1948, sold from 1953 and relaunched in 1981 as ‘Teema’), which was available in several colours and was enormously practical: he dispensed with decorative rims and shaped the surfaces so that they could be easily stacked. He also worked for the Nuutajärvi glassworks, for whom he produced both functional glass and decorative pieces. In both ceramics and glass, Kaj was probably the most influential designer of the 20th century....

(b Helsinki, Aug 19, 1899; d 1973).

American potter and teacher of Finnish birth. She studied at the School of Industrial Art in Helsinki and then under Alfred William Finch (1854–1930), a Belgian potter working in Helsinki, for six years. She arrived in the USA in 1927 and studied with Charles Fergus Binns at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. She taught in several institutions including the Henry Street Settlement House, New York City, and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, before being invited in 1938 to teach at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, one of the foremost art schools in America. At Cranbrook Grotell’s work developed from low-fired figurative pots to simplified geometric forms in stoneware and porcelain. She experimented with glazes and glaze effects, especially those using ash, copper, chrome and iron; Albany slip (dark brown) and Bristol glaze (thick and white) were among her favourites. Grotell was in charge of the ceramic department at Cranbrook until she retired in ...

(b 1855; d 1915).

French architect, interior designer, potter and collector. His Paris workshop undertook interior decoration, furniture design, woodwork and ironwork. He decorated three rooms at the Exposition Universelle of 1900; his floral decoration was in an Art Nouveau style. When his friend Jean(-Joseph-Marie) Carriès died, Hoentschel took over his pottery studio in Montriveau, and thereafter Carriès’s workers produced stoneware that Hoentschel integrated in his furniture. His collections of French art of the 17th and 18th centuries and of Asian art, acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, influenced the style of his own work....

(b Levens, Westmoreland [now Cumbria], 1872; d London, April 11, 1945).

English ceramic and metalwork designer. He trained in stone- and wood-carving at the Kendal School of Art, then studied metalwork at the Keswick School of Industrial Art, where he later taught. In 1899 he left Keswick to study in the metalwork department of the Liverpool School of Art under Richard Llewellyn Rathbone (1864–1939). He moved to London to teach at the John Cass Technical Institute (c. 1906) and at the Royal College of Art (1912–26), and participated with notable success in arts and crafts exhibitions. In 1914 he was inspired by a visit to the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. This led to the founding in 1915, with Ambrose Heal and others, of the Design and Industries Association (DIA), which was intended to further public awareness of excellence in design.

In 1921 Stabler helped to establish the Carter, Stabler & Adam pottery in Poole, Dorset (renamed ...

(b Bournemouth, Dec 4, 1942).

South African potter of English birth. He moved to South Africa with his parents in 1947 and trained as a commercial artist at the Durban Art School. After a six-month sculpture course he started a pottery apprenticeship at the Walsh Marais Studio in Durban and continued his training with Sammy Liebermann (1920–84) in Johannesburg. In 1961 he took over the Walsh Marais Studio, but in 1964 he closed it and travelled to Europe, where he met such leading potters as Lucie Rie, Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew. He was invited to work at the Gustavberg factory near Stockholm and later went to Germany, where he started a pottery studio and signed a year’s contract to teach at the art academy in Hamburg. In 1967 he returned to South Africa and in 1968 established a studio at N’Shongweni in Natal. In 1969 he visited Japan and befriended Shōji Hamada, who strongly influenced him. Walford produced mainly functional but individual pieces....