Bernard Moore

Porcelain vase by Bernard Moore in the Cleveland Museum of Art, c. 1900 Bernard Moore (1850–1935) was an English pottery manufacturer and ceramic chemist known for the innovative production of art pottery, especially his flambé glazes and pottery with reduced lustre pigments. After forty years running his family's pottery business, he set up his own pottery studio in Stoke-on-Trent in 1905 where he made art pottery with the help of a few assistants. After closing the studio in 1915, he worked as a ceramic consultant.

Life and work Moore was born in 1850 in Normacot, Staffordshire. In 1865 he began working for his father Samuel whose business was renamed Samuel Moore & Son. On his father´s death two years later, he took over the running of the firm. He was later joined by his younger brother Samuel Vincent Moore. From 1873 to 1905 they traded as Moore Bros. Waterlily Coffee Cup and Butterfly Handle, porcelain, Moore Brothers, c. 1880 LACMA, in the style of the Aesthetic Movement

Moore's knowledge of ceramic chemistry was considerable and he was widely consulted by the ceramics industry on technical matters. “Throughout the 1880s and 1890s it is likely that he was experimenting with and perfecting the specialist and difficult glazes with which his name is now principally associated.” In 1902 he was elected president of the British Ceramic Society. Reginald Tomlinson, and John Adams.

Flambé glazes make use of metallic oxides, usually iron or copper, fired to temperatures up to 1500 °C in a flame-burning kiln. At a critical moment, the air feeding the flame is shut off, and the flame, seeking oxygen for combustion, combines with oxygen in the glaze oxides, reducing the amount of oxygen they contain and changing their colour. The potter manages the process, which is not entirely predictable, to produce reds, purples, blues, lilacs and greens.

Moore exhibited internationally and received many awards for his ceramics. In 1910, a fire at the Brussels Exhibition destroyed much of his work.