Torquay pottery

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Torquay Motto Pottery Aller Vale Scandy Pattern Small Teapot.jpg

Torquay pottery or Torquay ware is pottery made in Torquay, Devon, England, using local clay, at one of fifteen or so local potteries chiefly serving the tourist trade,{{cite web |title=Website for collectors of Torquay Pottery |url=https://torquaypottery.info/ |accessdate=24 March 2020}}{{cite web |title=Torquay Potteries |url=http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/mp.cgi?item=91 |website=Studio Pottery |accessdate=24 March 2020}}{{cite web |title=Torquay Pottery |url=https://antiqueshoppefl.com/archives/gkline/torquay.htm |website=The Antique Shoppe |accessdate=24 March 2020}}{{Cite episode |title=Westpoint 32 |series=Bargain Hunt |series-link=Bargain Hunt |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3psyr |accessdate=24 March 2020 |network= BBC Television |date=24 March 2020 |series-no=50 |number=8 }} but also supplying high-end retailers such as Liberty of London.

The commonest form was mottoware - pottery such as plates or jugs decorated with inspirational or humorous text, often written in a Devon dialect, and thus known as Devon mottoware.{{cite web |title=Torquay Devon Mottoware |url=http://studiovaluations.co.uk/torquay-devon-mottoware/ |website=Studio Valuations |accessdate=24 March 2020 |date=11 September 2016}} Some items were produced in Cornish dialect, for "export" to, and sale in, Cornwall. Novelty items with no functional use were also produced, but are rarer.

The first pottery, the "Watcombe Terra Cotta Clay Company" (later Watcombe Pottery; acquired in 1901 by the nearby Aller Vale Pottery), was established in 1875 by G. J. Allen, after he discovered a particularly fine clay in the grounds of Watcombe House.{{cite web |title=Potteries in Torquay area |url=https://torquaypottery.info/about/potteries-in-torquay-area |publisher=Torquay Pottery Collectors' Society |accessdate=24 March 2020}}

File:Plaque at Longpark - geograph.org.uk - 1728780 (wire removed).jpg

Other potteries included the Longpark Pottery (1883; originally the "Longpark China and Terracotta Works"), in the Long Park district, which closed in 1957;{{cite web |title=Longpark Torquay Ware |url=http://www.gunnsgallery.co.uk/artists/357/longpark-torquay-ware |website=Gunns Gallery |accessdate=24 March 2020 }} Lemon & Crute; Torquay Terra-Cotta Company; and the St. Marychurch Pottery.

Notable potters included Blanche Georgiana Vulliamy.

File:Vintge Torquay Pottery Sailing Ship Motto Ware Mug " For A Good Boy" - 1.jpg

A Torquay Pottery Collectors' Society, established in 1976, encourages the study and collection of such wares. The society organised an exhibition, "Torquay Pottery: A Local Story" at Newton Abbot Town Museum in 2001.{{cite book |title=Torquay Pottery: A Local Story: An Exhibition At The Newton Abbot Town Museum Opened Jointly By Mr Ian Green |publisher=Torquay Pottery Collectors' Society |date=2001}} a North American Torquay Society was formed in 1990, for the same purpose.{{cite web |title=Torquay Pottery |url=https://torquaypottery.org/ |publisher=The North American Torquay Society |accessdate=24 March 2020}}