MARTIN, Robert Wallace
English potter. Robert Wallace Martin was the eldest of four brothers, known as Martin Brothers, who established in 1873 the Martin Brothers Pottery, an English ceramics manufactory. The four brothers, Robert Wallace Martin, Charles Douglas Martin (1846-1910), Walter Fraser Martin (1857-1912) and Edwin Bruce Martin (1860-1915), worked as a team to produce a hard, salt-glazed stoneware (called Martinware), from the initial throwing to the eventual selling of the products from their shop in London. Wallace modelled and threw the wares, Walter, the technician, was the glaze and clay specialist, Edwin was the decorator, and Charles managed both the business and the shop.
Before 1880, the wares were of simple and conventional form, such as vases, but the Martin tradition and name were built upon the production of grotesque and bizarre animal forms, for example, the ‘Martin birds’ (e.g. in Art Institute, Chicago), and jugs in the form of grotesque heads (e.g. in Victoria and Albert Museum, London). After 1900 the forms and decoration were simplified, influenced both by Japonisme and Art Nouveau.
The Martin brothers were among the forefront of studio potters in the late 19th century.