Some still have labels on them showing you what was stored in the pots.
I don't think they were originally on there when new, but I thought I would keep them on, as it adds to their charm!
They were designed by the extraordinary Susan Williams-Ellis, who set up the Portmeirion Pottery at Stoke-on-Trent in the early '60s.
Not only did she have an impressive career, designing and travelling abroad for new inspirations, well in to her 80s, but her family history reads like a cultural encyclopaedia of the 20th Century!
Her mother was the writer Amabel Strachey, cousin of Lytton Strachey and her father, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, was an architect, who built the fantastical Portmeirion Village in Wales.
Together they were mates with all the Bloomsbury set, hanging out with Virginia Woolf and Augustus John.
Susan also brushed with the famous when at a young age, learning to paint and sculpt with Graham Sutherland and Henry Moore as her tutors at the Chelsea School of Art.
Also, her godfather was Rudyard Kipling!!
Quite a list isn't it?!!
So with that in mind take another look at these pots and marvel at the unusual design and colour, and appreciate such an incredible person.
I'm going to be bringing them along to the VINTAGE SOMERSET FAIR in Wells Town Hall this Saturday, so you can have a closer look, and maybe take them home with you!!
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