Born in 1872 in Burslem, William Moorcroft was the second son of Thomas, a gifted china painter, and Teresa, a school governess. The happy family unit, however, must have been severely impacted by the death of Teresa in 1881 aged only 32, and subsequently by Thomas’ death in 1885. The couple were survived by four children, all boys.
Despite these early tragedies, William’s education did not seem to suffer unduly. He attended the Burslem Endowed School from age 7 and, showing signs of following his father’s path, by age 12 was taking art and design classes at the Wedgwood Institute. The youngest Moorcroft sibling, Harold, was also to become a talented artist.
William continued his studies at the National Art Training School (later known as the Royal College of Art) in South Kensington, additionally studying porcelain and ancient and modern pottery at the British Museum, and was awarded his Art Master’s Certificate in 1897. His ambition to become a potter was finally realised when he joined James Macintyre & Company of the Washington Works in Burslem as a designer in 1897.
Macintyre’s had developed and evolved from being manufacturers of high quality commercial pottery and porcelain (door furniture, tiles, sanitary and tablewares), to become a leading proponent of the so-called “art pottery” movement, inspired itself by the work of William Morris and the Aesthetic Movement. Between 1893 and 1895, while continuing to expand their other areas of interest (most notably painted porcelain and earthenwares for the making of tableware), they embarked on the employment of a number of designers with a view to funding a successful art pottery arm of the business. These early engagements were mostly short-lived, although the firm was able to exhibit some of its fledgling pieces at the Exhibition of Decorative and Artistic Pottery at the Imperial Institute of London in 1894, aligning themselves proudly with the likes of Minton and Doulton.
In 1895, art pottery at Macintyre’s was put on a much firmer footing with the appointment of Harry Barnard, an experienced modeller who had been working for Doulton. He developed a method of decoration called an appliqué slip – essentially a stencil pattern applied freehand, the effect of which was deemed to resemble plaster work or gesso. These high relief designs were marketed, with limited success, by Macintyre’s, with a printed backstamp as Gesso Faience. Despite large amounts of investment, including new workshops and a dedicated team of decorators being employed, the partnership of Barnard and Macintyre’s foundered after only two years, when he left to join Wedgwood. Moorcroft Pottery - A History Part 2