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School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Phoebe Stabler

Born: 1879, UK, England, Birmingham, Handsworth Died: 1955, UK, England, London, Hammersmith

Ceramicist, sculptor, and designer. Born Phoebe Gertrude McLeish, she married fellow sculptor and ceramic modeller Harold Stabler in 1906. Stabler began work at the Poole Pottery in around 1911. The Stablers were a very successful design partnership who enjoyed working together. Whenever they could, they spent days out drawing at the zoo or studying older pieces in museums.

After 1912 the couple had their own kiln in Hammersmith, where Phoebe Stabler produced garden ornaments and a series of figure models mainly of women and children colourfully but simply glazed. These included the works ‘Lavender Woman’, ‘Bath Towel’ and ‘Children with Bull’, all of which can be found in the Aberystwyth Ceramic Collection.

These works were made in press-moulded stoneware, a technique inspired by historical precedents: the Chinese Tang figures which first became known in the early twentieth century, and Greek Tanagra figures. According to her own account they had many problems with the firings until the moulds were taken over by Carter Stabler and Adams (Poole Pottery) where her husband was a director.

Several of these works were later produced under licensed by Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester and Ashtead Pottery. Stabler collaborated with her husband on several large-scale architectural works such as the War Memorial at Rugby School. The Stablers’ work was widely reviewed in ‘The Studio’, ‘The Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art’, and ‘The Pottery and Glass Trade Review’.