Best Ware & its Borders - Part One

During 2023, Barbara Anne Lee from Melbourne in Australia began to study the many different borders that Carlton Ware used on its Best Ware. She then created beautiful images of these embellishments.

Here, as the first of a series of pages, we begin to publish Barb's excellent work.

We start with borders that were not pattern specific but used on a wide range of patterns for over five decades.
They were devised by the decorating manager and designer Horace Wain once he began to work for Carlton Ware around 1912 after the partnership between Fred Wiltshaw and the Robinsons ended in 1911.

These ubiquitous borders were mostly used to ornament the inside and outside of rims of bowls, jugs and vases.

The Ubiquitous Borders

Three have been identified, namely:

• LONDON BEAD
• SPIKE BORDER
• WHEEL BORDER

These were the names that Carlton Ware used in its pattern records, which is why here, following the naming convention this website uses, their names are in bold uppercase.

Below, Barb has skillfully drawn these borders for us to help idenification:

LONDON BEAD

Click on the image to see how this border looks on different grounds.

SPIKE BORDER

Click on the image to see how this border looks on different grounds.

WHEEL BORDER

Click on the image to see how this border looks on different grounds.

Part 2 features borders used on Carlton Ware's Chinoiserie patterns by Horace Wain.