St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School

Souvenir ware

Above: Collection of Goss Pottery

This is what the Year 6 children found out about souvenir ware:

"Goss ware has been in production for hundreds of years.  It was very popular in seaside towns, you could only buy the practical crest in a particular town, for example only the Hastings crests could be bought in Hastings."

Above: Crest of St Leonards

"Adolphus Goss started making pottery in the year 1880.  Most of his pieces were made out of white clay and china; most also had gilding to make them stand out more.  His pieces always had a crest of a town on their front, these were mostly of seaside towns, as trains had been invented and lots of people now liked visiting the sea.  For this reason souvenirs were popular.  Some pieces were painted all-over, while some were just white with gilding around the edges for detail."

Above: Crest of Hastings

"A lot of the work done by Goss was very strange and had no reason at all.  Some examples of this include: a bullet shell, a boy eating a mango, a dumpling, a banjo, a kiwi (the bird!) and a dragon shaped beer bowl!"

"Looking at the Goss and crest ware inspired us to make our own clay masterpieces."

Above: Single piece of Goss Pottery