Truda Carter (1890–1958), was a designer who, alongside her first husband John Adams, was associated with the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

pottery that characterized

Poole Pottery Poole Pottery is a British pottery brand, now based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. As a company, it was founded in 1873 on Poole quayside in Dorset, where it continued to produce pottery by hand before moving its factory operations ...

during the inter-war years of the twentieth century.

Biography

Art Deco Poole Pottery with Truda Carter patterns

Born Gertrude Ethel Sharp, Truda was the youngest of seven children, her father being the entomologist David Sharp. Truda studied Applied Art at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in London, where she met and married ceramicist John Adams in 1915. Following their marriage the couple moved to South Africa, to teach at the School of Art at

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Technical College. There they established a pottery section at the college, and it is likely that Truda learnt much of her pottery skills from her husband during this period. Returning to Britain, Truda and John joined the pottery at

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, Dorset, in 1921, with the formation of the new company "Carter, Stabler and Adams Ltd" by its directors Cyril Carter (who Truda was later to marry), Harold Stabler and John Adams. Initially adapting the designs of her predecessor at

, James Radley Young, Carter went on to develop more complex patterns with clear influences from European

pottery and prints, as well as contemporary abstract

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

painting. Carter created the vast majority of the patterns that decorated Poole Pottery during the 1920s and '30s. It is these brightly coloured, loosely floral, abstract designs for which she is best known. Truda Carter remained resident designer at Poole Pottery until her retirement in 1950.Leslie Hayward and Paul Atterbury (Ed) ''Poole Pottery - Carter and Company and Their Successors, 1873-2002'' Richard Denis, Somerset, 2002

References

External links

Virtual Museum of Poole PotteryPottery Studio: Poole PotteryRobs Poole Pottery Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Truda History of Poole 1890 births 1958 deaths 20th-century British women artists 20th-century ceramists Alumni of the Royal College of Art British women ceramicists English potters Women potters

Biography

See also

References

External links