Free Shipping in the UK

The Icon Collection presents a body of work that encompasses the impossible, the oversized, the complex and the unique, imagined and made in collaboration with the art and design world’s most respected and renowned designers and studios.

Each piece is at once a sculptural artform as well as functional object, pushing the boundaries of the material, the master potter’s expertise, and the artist or designer’s ingenuity. Made as either one-off pieces or as part of a limited edition, the works included in the Icon Collection challenge both designer and maker in terms of scale and intricacy, while paying homage to the exceptional talent of the British ceramic industry, past and present, and the traditional manufacturing heritage of Stoke-on-Trent where 1882 Ltd. is based.

Artists and designers include architect John Pawson, artists Barnaby Barford and Bruce McLean, creative polymaths Martyn Thompson and Max Lamb, and ceramicist Amy J Hughes. Many of 1882 Ltd.’s Icon Collection pieces have originally been made for exhibitions and installations shown at prestigious cultural institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum; all have been conceived to elevate the daring mastery and ultimate connection of the hand, eye and heart between designer and maker, creating fresh and vital works for today’s modern way of life.

Big Vase 1 & 2

with Max Lamb

You can never have too many flowers. The question is how big can the vase be? Big Vase starts life as a solid block of plaster that is hand carved by hammer and chisel into the shape of the vase. A three-part hollow mould is created from the carved plaster form allowing multiple vases to be slip-cast in fine bone…

View

Boned in England

with 1882 Ltd

Boned in England was a collection of repeat fine bone china lights hand crafted in the North Staffordshire Potteries. Multiples of bisque and rumbled single white vessels contain diffused illumination creating a topography of light, emphasising the importance of British industry’s progression and future.

View

Cast Bowl

with John Pawson

Cast Bowl is conceived as a quiet landscape in ceramic. Glazed in the palest of hues, the play of light and shadow generates endless small shifts of tone across its contours. The piece draws on a particular set of architectural preoccupations – with proportion, line, volume and the precise way in which mass engages with an underlying surface – combining…

View

Festival Jug

with Pinch

This hand painted jug takes five arduos hours to paint and forms part of our Icon Collection. Painted by Emma Bailey who used to work at Wedgwood hand decorating Clarice Cliff, this is again testament to the skill that resides in Stoke-on-Trent. Festival Jug involves generous and curvaceous forms paired with exaggerated ratios delivered via handles and spouts. The shapes…

View

Garden Ware Platters

with Bruce McLean

Acclaimed conceptual artist Bruce McLean debuted a vast new body of work titled Garden Ware which was on exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum for the London Design Festival 2017. The collection of platters includes one-off earthenware creations by Bruce.

View

Garden Ware Vessels

with Bruce McLean

Acclaimed conceptual artist Bruce McLean debuted a vast new body of work titled Garden Ware which was on exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum for the London Design Festival 2017. The collection includes one-off earthenware creations by Bruce, including vases, bowls, platters as well as tableware.

View

ME WANT NOW

with Barnaby Barford

ME WANT NOW is a body of work by Barnaby Barford that compels the viewer to question their relationships and the world around them. Large scale energetic Word Drawings, offer a departure from the meticulous planning, order and structure of Barford’s sculptural works. These Word Drawings embody the chaotic immediacy and almost forceful nature of the ‘me first’ mentality and…

View

Penny Vase

with Martyn Thompson

Forming part of the Icon Collection the Penny Vases stands true to the ethos of the collection, large in scale, complex to make and limited in number – each vase is exceptional and unique. Working with a hand thrower in Stoke-on-Trent we have pushed the bounds of the thrown pot. The vases are left to dry for 6 weeks and…

View

Positive & Negative

with Snarkitecture

The concept for this collaboration with Snarkitecture was to reveal aspects of the technical process used to create fine bone china. While Positive reflects the simple geometry of a cylindrical vase, Negative brings to life the mould that is used in the creation of the first piece. Normally unseen, the box-like volume is impressed with exactly one half of its…

View

Stack

with Paul Smith

Stack is a series of unique, conceptually complex vases designed with Paul Smith  that form part of the Icon Collection. Each piece in the Stack Collection is unique making each Stack a work of art. Stack is a special series of vessels – appearing as a stack of plates, yet functioning as a vase, with each ‘plate’ hand glazed in…

View

Tangerine

with Bruce McLean

Bruce McLean invented the ‘Tangerine Test,’ to assure himself that the quality of jug or painting was excellent. Simply put, if the object looked good with a tangerine, then it passed the test and was ready to display. However these ceramic tangerines turn the test on its head. A compact piece of conceptual art by the acclaimed artist Bruce McLean, these tiny…

View

The Apple Tree

with Barnaby Barford

1882 Ltd. collaborated with Barnaby Barford to create a series of fine bone china apples which took pride of place on The Apple Tree. The large-scale sculpture was the focal point of Barford’s exhibition ‘MORE MORE MORE’ which presented a culmination of the artist’s investigation into society’s incessant need for more and the detrimental effect it has on us as individuals,…

View

Tower of Babel

with Barnaby Barford

The Tower of Babel is composed of 3,000 individual bone china buildings, each measuring 10-13cm tall and depicting a real London shop. Barford has photographed over 6,000 shop fronts in the process of making the Tower, cycling over 1,000 miles to visit every postcode in London. The photographs were created as ceramic transfers and fired onto fine bone china to…

View

Tryst

with Amy J Hughes

Industry meets the studio maker head-on in this collaborative project between ceramicist Amy Jayne Hughes, the V&A and 1882 Ltd. Aiming to restore the humble vase to its former status as the Ultimate Accessory, the collection elevates the functional object to a design motif and a symbol of the ancient world… Amy Jayne Hughes was the V&A Ceramics Resident from…

View