Name/Title
Silver Luster Ceramic CreamerEntry/Object ID
2022.2.85.60Description
This is a silver luster ceramic creamer, circa 1960-1970, with a songbird design surrounded by vines, leaves, and flowers. The artist's mark "J. Palin Thorley" is signed on the bottom of the creamer.Context
Joseph Palin Thorley was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1892. Both his father and grandfather painted ceramics for a living. At the age of nine, Thorley enrolled in art school. Five years later, at the age of fourteen, he joined Wedgewood as an apprentice. In 1919 Thorley became art director and manager of decoration for several potteries in the Staffordshire area.
In 1927, Thorley emigrated to the United States, moving to East Liverpool, Ohio, then called America's version of Staffordshire. The best work from his East Liverpool years was done for Hall China and Taylor Smith.
In the late 1930s, Thorley became associated with the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. He eventually moved to Williamsburg, where he restored an old museum and converted it into a home and studio. He supplied the Craft House museum shop with reproductions of 18th-century ceramics from the Colonial Williamsburg collection. Joseph Palin Thorley died in 1987.
- Adapted from research and text written by Thomas Bachelder of the Malabar Farm FoundationLocation
Room
Dining RoomBuilding
The Big HouseOhio State Park
Malabar Farm State Park
