Phoebe Gertrude Stabler (née McLeish, 1879–1955) was an English artist working across many mediums including metalwork, pottery, enamel and wood in the late nineteenth and early-mid twentieth centuries. "Although Stabler is best known for her pottery figures, during the 1920s and 1930s she was also well known for her stone carvings and was an important contributor to the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, 1924."

Biography

Stabler was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, but grew up in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, where both her parents originated. Stabler was one of five or more children, with her two sisters also following creative careers as jewellery designers. Stabler first studied at the Liverpool School of Art in the 1890s, where two of her sisters also attended. During this time she was awarded the City Scholarship and Travelling Scholarship. She went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Cloisonne enamel roundel of an angel

Artwork

In 1906, she married

Harold Stabler Harold Stabler FRSA (10 June 1872 – 11 April 1945) was a designer and craftsman in silver, enamels, pottery, glass and other materials. '' The Times'' described him as "one of the most capable industrial artists of his generation, and a successf ...

. From 1912, Stabler and her husband, had a kiln in Hammersmith, London, where they worked collaboratively as well as Stabler producing garden ornaments. She created richly glazed pottery figures which were produced by both the Royal Worcester and

Royal Doulton Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of En ...

and Poole Pottery. For Poole Pottery, she collaborated with her husband to design the ceramics for The Cenotaph in Durban. Stabler also designed works for Ashtead Potters, a pottery that employed ex-servicemen after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. Stabler created the World's Land-Speed Trophy that was awarded to Sir Henry Segrave. In 2018, ''The Light of Knowledge'' (1927) ceramic tile panel was put on display at the Rugby Art Gallery & Museum following a fundraising effort to have it restored.

Selected exhibitions

Stabler's work was exhibited widely, including at the following institutes, * Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts * Society of Women Artists * Royal Academy of Arts * Walker Art Gallery * Women's International Art Club * Sir John Cass Arts and Crafts Society * Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society * British Institute of Industrial Art

Works held in Collections

References

External links

*
A short video showing Phoebe Stabler at work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stabler, Phoebe 1879 births 1955 deaths 19th-century British sculptors 20th-century British sculptors 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English women artists Alumni of Liverpool John Moores University Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands Artists from Liverpool English women sculptors Sibling artists