Artist/Maker: William Staite Murray - Aberystwyth University School of Art Museums and Galleries

Ceramicist. Staite Murray studied painting with his cousins William Fisher and Hettie Staite from 1893-5, with further studies taking place later that decade while working as a seed merchant in continental Europe. Settling in London in 1905, he studied pottery at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1909-12, after which he began to make pottery seriously. Following army service during the First World War, Staite Murray established his own potteries at Rotherhithe from 1919-24, Brockley, Kent from 1924-29 and Bray, Berkshire from 1929-39.

Some of Staite Murray’s older work shows the influence of avant-garde art styles such as Vorticism but in the early 1920s, like many others, he became more interested in early Chinese ceramics and experimented with high temperature stoneware firing with oil. After the mid-1920s Staite Murray produced his most notable work making non-functional pots which he regarded as works of art akin to pieces of sculpture. Each was given a title, and he held exhibitions in conjunction with well-known painters including Ben Nicolson with his prices rising steeply over the decade.

In 1925 Staite Murray was appointed to the Royal College of Art staff, becoming head of the pottery department in 1926 and elected a member of the 7 & 5 Society in 1927. He became an influential teacher in the 1930s. Following a visit to Rhodesia in 1939, Staite Murray decided to settle there with his wife in part because of the beginning of the Second World War. He gave up making pottery after the move and died twenty years later, although he had a final exhibition in London towards the end of his life. The pots in his collection are early examples of his work mostly purchased before 1925, and show his experimental interest in high-fired stoneware glazes.