Chapter Five

JESSIE VAN HALLEN

When Jessie Van Hallen died in the summer of 1983, there was no obituary in The Times. The trade press had become oblivious to her existence. The public had little or no knowledge of her. Serious Wade collecting was still in its infancy, and to all but a few, the ‘JVH’ scratched on to the base of peeling 1930s George Wade & Son Ltd. figurines might well have been just a fault in their production.

However, since her death, Jessie Van Hallen has become famous as one of the greatest modellers of ceramic figures. A cursory glance at her work shows that she had flair and originality, but she had more than this. Her work had magic, her figures swirl and dance as she captured movement like no other modeller before or since. And with a hand-picked team of fine paintresses, she portrayed beauty and colour of which there are too few examples surviving today.

Jessie Elaine Brooke was born at Marsh House, The Marsh (now Marsh Avenue), Wolstanton, in August 1902, the daughter of an earthenware dealer. Her parents, Algenon and Henrietta Brooke, had two other children, Doris and Cyril. However, in her early years, Jessie and her family lived with her maternal grandparents at a large house called Claremont, Porthill, just down the road from where George Wade was growing up. Her grandfather, Henry Ball, owned this huge villa on Porthill bank for many years (it is still there beside Claremont Close), whilst running a successful chemist’s shop in Burslem (now Abbey Health, Queen Street).

Jessie twice had pneumonia, and was thus deemed a delicate child; so much so that she was only able to attend the local private school on a part time basis, spending most afternoons at home. While at home she was given pencil and paper to keep her amused, and her artistic ability soon began to show, although the scratching of her pencils irritated her grandfather. But it was on his suggestion that she was sent to Burslem School of Art (now part of Staffordshire University). By the age of fourteen she was working for a scholarship in dress design. But when the opportunity arose to attend life-drawing classes at London’s West Ham Polytechnic, she took up the place for a few months and became interested in anatomy. This naturally led her to model figures in clay. She returned to Burslem College of Art to study pottery. She was in good company at the College of Art, as other well known names attended at this time, including Susie Cooper. In fact, Jessie and Susie both won scholarships to the Royal College of Art, but neither took them up, as it was not thought proper in those times for a young lady to leave her family and live away from home. This was despite studying and undertaking special commissioned work whilst in London.

Jessie returned to live with her family at Adbaston House, Waterloo Road, Cobridge. From there, her work began to be noticed by local companies. At the tender age of 16 she had already produced work as a freelance designer and modeller for such well known firms as Moorcroft, Staffordshire Porcelain, Coalport, Crown Staffordshire and James Kent. Her father had used his contacts to show her work at these and other factories, and her models received a lot of interest. Her versatility and skill allowed her to undertake almost any fine art project, including repair work and restoration of valuable items. She was recommended to a firm who had a valuable consignment of Spode ware damaged in transit which required her skills.

Jessie’s father was a patriarchal figure who took a very close interest in her work. Very much the head of the household, he carefully negotiated and vetted all of Jessie’s offers of new employment. This was understandable, as fully trained modellers were earning less than £2 a week, whereas Jessie was earning a handsome £5 a model, which was often only a few hours work. Most modellers at that time were men, who combined the job with being a mouldmaker, and they were often quite dismissive of this girl modeller, so young and gifted.

On 6th March 1924 Jessie married handsome Harry George Hallen, a descendant of the Hallen firm of Wellington Street. He was a motorcar salesman, but later became a ships’ officer in the merchant navy, which involved him being away from home for long periods. They initially lived at 44 Rushton Road, Cobridge, quite close to Jessie’s family. This was good for Jessie when her husband was at sea as she was very close to her sister Doris, with whom she played tennis regularly. She still managed to keep her hand in at modelling pottery on a freelance basis, despite soon having two children (born 1927 and 1929) to look after.

However, her life changed when Major George Wade came to call. Quite when George Wade first met Jessie is unclear, but he couldn’t fail to have been unaware of her designs of the previous ten years, particularly as they were the work of a young female freelancer, a rarity in the 1920s. Soon after joining Wade, Jessie changed her name to Jessie Van Hallen. She claimed that the ‘Van’ had been previously dropped by her husband’s family as it had sounded too Germanic during the war, although as stated before, there seems little evidence of this.

Jessie was allowed to set up her own small department at Wade in 1930 reporting directly to George Wade, and was given the freedom to produce more or less what she liked, a situation unheard of at that time. Wade were producing electrical/industrial ceramics so the production of decorative ware was quite a divergence. Initially Jessie modelled garden gnomes for Carter’s seeds, some so large they were too heavy to pick up! This line was so successful that she was able to expand into flower arrangements, and, later, models of animals and ladies. The flowers were mainly made from heavy clay, but a few forget-me-nots were made from china, before it was deemed uneconomic. Flowers also appeared on broaches, ear-rings and small bowls. They were then given a traditional glaze finish. Most of their work was sold abroad.

Jessie Hallen (right) at Southport Flower Show

Manchester Ideal Home Exhibition, Garden Gnomes Stand

However, the lady figures were treated differently. Rather than going into direct competition with firms such as Doultons, who were successfully producing more expensive figurines, an attempt was made to make good quality products available to the masses. The production costs were reduced by the use of a new finish patented by Wade. This was called Scintillite, which involved a sprayed coat of cellulose. This innovative early cellulose finish allowed for beautiful colours and finishes, but yellowed with age and also flaked and peeled, being particularly susceptible to sunlight. But it did mean that beautifully modelled figurines were within the reach of more people than previously. The cost of the new figures ranged from 3/9d (three shillings and ninepence, or 19p in today’s money) to 35/- (or £1.75). Each figurine came in its own special, colourful box.

Comedian Tommy Handley meets Jessie & her sales girls, Manchester Ideal Home Exhibition

Crown Devon also produced figures in cellulose, although their finish was of slightly better quality. Modelled mainly by Kathleen Parsons, Crown Devon’s Sutherland range often came close to rivalling Jessie’s figures. But despite simultaneously being available in a cellulose and a more standard, expensive high glaze finish, they were never quite as popular, due mainly to Wade’s publicity campaign. Some of Jessie’s figures were also available later with a more normal underglaze, although very few were produced. These have endured the years well, and today fetch a high price at auction.

‘Pavlova’ is believed to be the first lady figure to go into production, followed by ‘Curtsey’, ‘Romance’ and ‘Pompadour’. By now it was 1933, and when Pavlova figures reached shops such as Lewis’s, they sold extremely well for 10/6d (ten shillings and sixpence), but staff could buy them from Wade for 7/-. However, due to the depression of the early 1930s, many could not afford to. These early figures were interesting, but were fairly conventional. Soon Jessie was producing more Art Deco designs, such as ‘Joy’, ‘Humoresque’, ‘Anton’, ‘Dawn’ and ‘Anita’; the latter was believed to be the last figure she modelled for Wade. These designs captured beauty and movement that has rarely been matched. The most remarkable and most delicate of all was the high-kicking ‘Ginger’.

These figures were critically acclaimed and sold well despite the Depression of the early 1930s. They were sold throughout the world, large consignments going as far away as Australia and New Zealand. Pottery and Glass described them as “The finest examples of china figures obtainable, well-conceived and depicting in a true and perfect manner life-like poses of dancing ladies, etc. The artist has in every case given to the models the grace and balance of the Terpsichorean art and each piece is an inspiration of creative gift. One of the latest models is a superb example of craftsmanship, entitled ‘Springtime’ embodying the springtime joyousness. Another ‘piece de resistance’ is ‘Dawn’, depicting a charming girl gracefully skipping with a scarf. The fine ‘Scintillite’ effects might prompt one to address the figure thus: “O beauteous Dawn; ‘Tis in till Light.”

Jessie saw a subject in almost everyone she saw, and was more prolific than most people realise. Some of the figures have clear origins:

‘The Bride’, ‘Cynthia’ and ‘Tony’ are of George Wade’s children at daughter Iris’s wedding in December 1938 to Henry Carryer Straker (bride, bridesmaid and pageboy). However, Tony and Cynthia’s figures are really too young in reality; Tony was 14 and wasn’t the pageboy at all.

‘Carmen’ was from Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’, although Jessie used a caster at Wade called Freda Sutton (nee Shallcross), as the model.

‘Ginger’ was the film star and dancer Ginger Rogers, popular partner of Fred Astaire.

‘Colorado’ was the result of a visit by Jessie, Harry, and workmate Gladys Rowley (nee Pitts) to Burslem’s Blood Tub, a long since demolished wooden theatre called The Hippodrome that was beside the fire station. There they saw a dancing duo called ‘Alexis and Isolde’, whom Jessie modelled. Later this figure was renamed Colorado.

The ‘Alsatian dog’ was called Tiger, and belonged to the wife of Joseph Lynch, head mould maker at Wade. The ‘Dalmatian dog’ was also his.

‘Christina’ was described in a 1935 Pottery and Glass magazine as ‘a kennel maid with a hound in leash’.

‘Jose’ was Jessie’s cousin, and ‘Baby on a cushion’ was a niece, as was ‘Dilys’, modelled as a face mask. ‘Baby on a cushion’ is also thought to be nephew David or a friend’s baby Ivan!

‘Maria Theresa’ (1717-80) was a powerful Austrian Empress, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She was also the mother of Marie Antoinette, later Queen of France. However, the Van Hallen figure, albeit relatively rare, is wide, flat and rather bland.

‘Hille Bobbe’ was from the grotesque painting of the same name (also called ‘Malle Bobbe’) by the 17th century dutch painter, Franz Hals, who was better known for ‘The Laughing Cavalier’. However, in the painting, Bobbe has a moth-eaten bird on her shoulder. This extraordinary Van Hallen figure was her first for Wade and the only one to have ‘Jessie Hallen 1931’ – not Van Hallen, note – on the side of the base. (It is usually very faint and on the underside of the skirt). However, Hille Bobbe wasn’t put into production at the same time as the other figurines. Bobbe was cleaned up for a later underglaze figure, the more lovable ‘Old Nanny’.

‘Juliet’ was the Canadian actress, Norma Shearer, star of many films including the 1936 movie, ‘Romeo and Juliet’. She was also the wife of the prominent MGM producer Irving Thalberg. Jessie was also a regular visitor to the theatre in Stratford- Upon-Avon looking for ideas for her figures.

‘Lupino Lane’ was the London music-hall star of the brilliant 1930s/40s production of ‘Me and My Girl’, famous for the cockney anthem, ‘The Lambeth Walk’.

‘Lotus’ was the 1930s Chinese-American actress, Anna May Wong. Some figures bear her name. She was the star of ‘Shanghai Express’ (1932), ‘Java Head’ (1934) and the original version of ‘The Thief of Baghdad’ (1924).

‘Dolly Varden’ was an actress in the 1890s.

‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ were the first ceramic figures made of the world famous 1937 Walt Disney characters, and are by far the most interesting Disney figures ever made. They were also the most successful. When the figurine workshop was struggling for orders, the Snow White figures kept the workshop solvent. However, Woolworth stores, who sold many of them, wanted them made very cheaply, as normally Snow White sold for 7/6d, and the dwarfs for 5/- each, which was seen to be too expensive. (A set of these in only fair condition sold for £1,000 at auction in 1995. A good set could be worth double this amount.)

‘Alice’ was American actress Charlotte Henry, who played Alice in the 1933 film version of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. This lovely figure is enhanced by the curious inclusion of a dodo bird on the base by Alice’s feet.

‘Carole’ was Carole Lombard, the 1930s Hollywood star of films such as ‘Bolero’ and ‘Rumba’ (both 1934).

‘Claude’ could be the actor Claude Rains in a period drama such as Dickens’ ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ (1935). He later starred in such classics as ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

‘Choir boy’ was thought to be Ernest Luft.

The things you can do with gas … (April 1937)

Joy, advertised in August 1937 (opposite), was apparently remodelled for Coalport (above)

‘Jeanette’ was Jeanette MacDonald who sang and danced with Nelson Eddy in a successful series of 1930s film operettas, such as ‘Rose Marie’ (1936) and ‘Naughty Marietta’ (1935).

‘Pavlova’ was thought to be Anna Pavlova (1885-1931), the Russian ballerina, famous for performing ‘The Dying Swan’ (1907) and choreographing ‘Autumn Leaves’ (1919). However, there is also ‘The Swan Dancer’ (also known as ‘Pavlova The Swan’) which fits the bill more readily.

‘Mimi’ may be from the opera La Boheme.

‘Grace’ was thought to be Gracie Fields, the singer and comedienne from Lancashire, who sang her way through films like ‘Sally In Our Alley’ (1931) and ‘Sing As We Go’ (1934).

‘Curtsey’ could possibly be Anna Neagle, the British actress in films such as ‘Nell Gwyn’ (1934) and ‘Victoria the Great’ (1937).

‘June’ is quoted as being the versatile film star June Allyson, star of ‘Two Girls and a Sailor’, and Glenn Miller’s wife in the ‘The Glenn Miller Story’. However, June’s first feature film wasn’t until 1943.

Nearly 100 different figurines were made, and each could be found in a variety of colour schemes. Jessie examined every piece herself, as she would not allow seconds – all had to be perfect. She scratched ‘JVH’ on the base, and then a Wade mark was added. Usually this mark was a deer leaping over the words ‘Made in England’, and an unusual logo for ‘WADE Figures’. The logo for WADE was clearly designed for the Van Hallen figures, quite possibly by Jessie herself. A slightly straightened version of this logo is still used as the official Wade logo today. Also used initially instead of the leaping deer was an owl symbol. This was to show that the Scintillite finish was registered and patent protected.

In the mid to late 1930s some of the figures such as Joy, Juliette, and the extremely rare Madonna and Child were remade with a more conventional underglaze instead of the Scintillite cellulose. Some were even made after the war to give as retirement presents to Wade staff, disproving the theory that all the Van Hallen moulds were destroyed during the war.

Jessie was a very attractive lady. She had long black hair that fell into natural ringlets around her shoulders. Some said she had a Spanish gypsy look about her. She was always smartly dressed, vivacious, good natured and enjoyed life. She even designed and made her own stylish clothes.

Jessie got on well with her small workforce, treating them almost like a family, and they all worked hard for her. She would help some of them with their work, showing them how to make and paint floral arrangements, for example; but others she expected rather too much of, as there was no formal training. Her eye for perfection was soon accepted, even by those who were paid per figure. The standards were exceptionally high, and the paintresses were particularly talented; their talent almost eclipsing Jessie’s, although it was Jessie who chose the various colour schemes. Her department grew, until she had forty girls working for her. She would often share with them her stories of weekend trips or holidays abroad, which included cruises, sometimes with George Wade and family. These cruises were mainly in the Mediterranean, visiting Egypt, Monte Carlo and Spain, and were to give her inspiration for her modelling. Her husband Harry, having spent so many years at sea, used to take the children to a bungalow in Rhyl.

Jessie’s workforce included:

Elsie Rogers, who was Jessie’s first – and initially only – employee. She was the best caster, and later made forewoman despite being so young.

Rose Dudley (nee Roberts), who was a flower maker, and also one of the first to be employed.

Joseph Lynch, who was a mould maker, who started at Wade making the moulds for Jessie’s garden figures.

Gladys Rowley (nee Pitts), who worked in the office for Jessie, and went on several cruises with Jessie.

Doris Fletcher (nee Wooliscroft), who was a caster and fettler. May Toft (nee Mitchell), who was later a forewoman caster. Freda Sutton (nee Shallcross), who was a caster.

Minnie Austin (nee Barlow), who was a flower maker. Dorothy Oldfield (nee Proctor), who was a paintress.

Mrs Millward was in charge of the flower makers, sitting in the centre with the girls working in a circle round her.

Jennie Harding, Annie Mitchell, Gladys Davies, Elsie Edge, Cissie Goodwin, Sally Peach – all casters. (A caster actually produced the figures by pouring the slip into moulds, and then undoing the moulds and removing the figures. Often figures would need to be assembled using two or three different moulds.)

Some workers had to walk up to eight miles to Burslem to start work at 8am and then work until 5.30pm, with three quarters of an hour for lunch. They also had to work 8am until 12.30pm on Saturday. Some were as young as 14, and they received 5/- to 11/- per week, but up to 25/- per week when they reached the age of 21. However, it was often the practice to sack workers when they reached this age to save money. One worker remembers ‘Zena’ being sold for 8/-, but the workers receiving only 4/6d for making a dozen.

The Van Hallen workshop was made up of separate rooms with adjoining doors. There were different rooms for the mould makers, the casters, the paintresses, and the flower makers, who were often called in from their room as they were the only ones allowed to fix their flowers to the figures.

Some of the rooms were more fun to work in than others. In the casters ‘shop’ they were free to talk and laugh whilst they were working, even break into song. If they were making too much noise, Jessie would walk with heavy footsteps to let them know she was coming, and then open the door and ask if they were ‘alright’ before disappearing again. They were even allowed to use a wind-up gramophone in the lunch-break. The flower-makers ‘shop’ was the complete opposite. Workers could not talk or leave their benches without permission. All the rooms were kept relatively clean and tidy for the times, mainly at George Wade’s insistence, but there was still a lot of dust. So much so that the girls were made to wear masks as it affected the throats and chests of some of them.

Jessie with actor Stanley Holloway and Phyllis Monkman at the Manchester Ideal Home Exhibition

The front of the Manchester Pottery designed by Jessie Van Hallen

Jessie’s ‘studio’ at the Wade factory was an old attic room at the top of three flights of rickety wooden steps. She worked alone, and the only visitors she had were those being modelled and, of course, George Wade, who would often bring flowers to be copied.

Jessie was often called to demonstrate her modelling skills at exhibitions such as the Ideal Home exhibitions in London and Manchester, the annual British Industrial Fairs (the major event for the pottery industry), and in the larger stores like Harrods and Selfridges. In 1937, whilst alterations were being made at Wade, Jessie, helped by Joseph Lynch, designed and made a type of terra cotta frieze for the outside of the Manchester Pottery, which can still be seen today.

During her time at Wade, she became the only person allowed by Sir Jacob Epstein to copy one of his sculptures – in this case a small copy of Adam – on condition that it be destroyed after it had been displayed for a certain length of time. Six were actually made because of firing difficulties, all duly destroyed. The original and controversial Adam was created in alabaster in 1939 to cries of ‘Indecency!’ and now stands at Harewood Hall in Yorkshire. Artists were amazed when Jessie made the copy without measurements; she had the astonishing ability to reduce or enlarge a figure with total accuracy (note the mini Zenas and Pavlovas). However, when Jessie went to model Adam, she found Epstein’s studio in a terrible state of disarray and covered in cobwebs. Jessie also modelled a bust of Haille Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.

Soon after starting work for Wade, the Hallen family moved out to the village of Endon, just outside the north-eastern city border on the Leek road; firstly at Orford Road, then in Station Road at a large rented detached house called The Manse. Harry, by now working for an insurance firm, would drive her to work everyday in one of a series of new cars he would acquire. Then just before the war they moved to Scholar Green, north of the city, just over the Cheshire border.

However, Jessie’s brilliant career with George Wade & Co. Ltd. was cut short due to the Second World War. The company had to revert completely to industrial ceramics for the war effort, and decorative ware was wound down. Jessie wept when she got her letter in 1940 giving her three months’ notice. However, she and George Wade remained close friends for the rest of their lives, and he later supplied materials for her home pottery.

She joined Coalport soon after as their Art Director, firstly at their Cauldon Place works in Shelton, and later at Wolfe Street, Stoke, where Coalport had taken over George Jones’ Crescent Pottery. But it was quite a comedown from having her own department. She was not happy there, finding the atmosphere archaic and Dickensian. So when she was expecting her third child in 1942, it was with great relief that she left them. While she was at Coalport, she continued working as a modeller, sharing the same workshop as the paintresses. The only line she is known to have produced is a set of animals, marked ‘Coalport by Vanhalen’, although it is unclear if they ever went into full production, even for export. They included a kangaroo, a chick, a cobra, lovebirds on a branch, an ostrich, a cockatoo and a small bear rolling on its back. It is interesting to note that this series also included the bird known in the World of Wade book as ‘Flicka’ (#204 in Book 2) where it implies that it was designed by Faust Lang.

Jessie modelling at the Manchester Ideal Home Exhibition

She continued to work as a freelance from home, initially using her own brick kiln, but latterly sending her work to the Wade factory for firing. She sold to private customers and various shops in Cheshire and Stoke. One of her most successful pieces was her model of Mow Cop castle, a folly that overlooks Scholar Green. She first produced them in 1957, and ended up making hundreds which have winged their way all over the world. They are marked with a handwritten ‘J.Van Hallen’, and are usually dated. In contrast was her ambitious model of the huge timber-framed house, Little Moreton Hall, which is just north of Scholar Green, built by the Moreton family in about 1520. The model was made in 26 pieces, with 424 windows (transfer lithographs) and 11 variations in its black and white painted decoration. Very few were made. Modelled in 1978 shortly before she died, she only ever made 19 of these models, so intricate were they to put together. Each model took a month to make, and they were fired at George Wade & Son Ltd. Jessie was paid £80 for each model by the National Trust at Little Moreton Hall, who sold them on for £150, mostly to American visitors.

Although undoubtedly a great modeller, she had her limitations as a potter and paintress, particularly later in life. Although she did find a paintress to handle most of her freelance work, she could well have done worse than to find someone willing to reproduce her models, to allow her to concentrate more on modelling. Her later pieces were heavier as she lacked the agility to pour the excess slip out of the mould in time before it settled and over-thickened. She died aged 80 in July 1983 after three previous heart attacks in close succession. The story goes that she was out delivering stock in Kidsgrove when she collapsed. She is buried in an out-of-sequence grave closest to St. Luke’s church at Mount Pleasant, Mow Cop.

Her models are still being made today. A fellow part-time potter acquired her moulds in September 1983 from Jessie’s husband Harry, who agreed that her moulds could be used again. And so Polar Bears, lovebirds, and of course the now famous Mow Cop castle are still being produced under the name Dilford Pottery. All pieces are marked ‘Dilford Pottery’ with ‘Modelled by J Van Hallen’ added as a tribute to the memory of Jessie. Two of the animal figures, the cockatoo and the lovebirds, are the same as those made for Coalport! though Jessie remoulded them after leaving the company.

Referred to in Pat Murray’s fascinating book ‘The Charlton Price Guide to Wade Whimsical Collectables’, Dilford Studio was originally set up locally in 1955 as a one-man (& wife) concern, being more of an interesting hobby than a business. Dilford produced a variety of bowls, dishes and vases in earthenware, finished in a range of satin matt glazes, agate/marbled effects, and even a few subtle lithographs were added to some articles.

Inactive for many years, Dilford Studio was revived on acquiring Jessie’s moulds in 1983, and dedicated itself to re-creating Van Hallen wares in a porcelain body. Most of the models are currently in production although in limited numbers, being produced by the same man (in the same spare room!) and just round the corner from where Jessie grew up. The model of Mow Cop castle is still the most popular, and has been dispatched to many countries, by friends and relatives to people familiar with the well-known landmark.

Jessie’s work lives on. Her work is now appearing on the covers of Antique’s magazines and on BBC Antique’s programmes. The forgotten genius is now being hailed as a heroine from many corners. Wade should be rightly proud of the originality that she brought to the firm. Along with the 1950’s Whimsies, and no doubt their recent progressive industrial ceramics, Jessie’s figurines were Wade’s greatest innovation.