Welcome to our new 2013 page which will have content added as and when meetings are held. In the meantime, please click on the years shown left in the menu to visit our previous meetings.

March 2013 London

More than twenty members met over the weekend of 23rd and 24th March. Several members enduring difficult journies to London battling lots of snow which fell overnight. (Hard to believe that our 2012 spring meeting was the complete opposite as we basked under unbroken skies and warm sun filled days.) Saturday dawned with a walking tour of some of the buildings and areas linked to Robert Williams Armstrong in the city. Our main event though was a private viewing of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Belleek collection both on display and in store plus a look at their other ceramic collections.

Above...UK Group at the V&A Collection

There were too many of us to view everything in one group, so we broke off into two 'teams' where we were able to handle pieces at first handand inspect some very rare and even unique piece, such as the dragon paperweight shown below. This paperweight has some interesting text to the base which is still the subject of research. More to follow.

That evening we met for Dinner at Stefs, a family run restaurant just off the busy thoroughfare of Oxford Street. Sunday morning started with a visit to the fabulous British Museum. Later we all met for a well deserved Sunday lunch at the Grade Two listed 'Lamb' near Russell Square and our formal meeting during the afternoon. It was good to see Karen join us from Texas for the weekend. Don and Gretchen Campbell had hoped to make the trip from America as well but unfortunately it was not possible.

Above...Earthenware Wall Plaque painted by Eugene Sheerin. Holding the Sheerin plaque so that we can see the marks is Rebecca Wallis Curator of Ceramics & Glass. The Plaque is entitled ‘Innocence’ and signed dated 1879. Also in image are Eddie Murphy left and Charles Easthope centre.