Homemaker

Homemaker was a range of pottery and glassware designed by unknown Staffordshire student Enid Seeney. The UK-based company Ridgway produced and marketed these. Ridgway is numbered among the largest pottery combines in existence.

Many consider Homemaker the best of pottery from the 1950s. It was available in British Woolworth stores from 1958 till 1970. One of the Homemaker range’s most successful pieces appeared on the market between 1956 and 1957. It featured a Robin Day armchair, a Sigvard Bernadotte sofa and a sideboard. Woolworth mass-produced and marketed this exemplary piece of Homemaker pottery in the U.K., and it was very successful. Some of the better Homemaker display pieces, like intricate coffee pots, fetch high prices today.

One of the most enduring Homemaker range designs was yellow ’hollow-ware’. Many coloured Homemaker designs are also available. Homemaker also included a barbecue range that featured coloured or monochrome motifs. Skewered meats and mushrooms were among these motifs. These Homemaker ranges resembled the Fiesta line, produced by Barker Brothers.

Today, many of the most famous Homemaker pieces appear in modern reproduction formats, like plastic light switch surrounds and trays. Original pieces from the Homemaker range are quite expensive today. A certain Homemaker soup terrine that sold for twelve shillings and sixpence back then can now cost as much as £100 or more at auctions. Earlier, Woolworth sold thousands of these pieces from the Homemaker range at the original rates. This stands as mute testimony to how popular Homemaker pottery is even today.