Millicent Jane Taplin

Millicent (Millie) Jane Taplin (1902–1980) was a British designer and painter of ceramics who spent most of her career at Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (1917–1962). She was trained in painting by Alfred and Louise Powell, and supervised Wedgwood's ceramics painters. She became a designer of decorative patterns in 1929 and by the mid-to-late 1930s was one of the company's main designers, although she did not design pottery shapes. She was one of only two working-class women to become a successful ceramics designer before the Second World War. Her tableware designs were exhibited by Wedgwood at Grafton Galleries in London in 1936, and several of her designs are now on display at the V&A Museum. Her design "Strawberry Hill", with Victor Skellern, was awarded the Council of Industrial Design's Design of the Year Award in 1957.

Early life and education Millicent Jane Taplin was born in 1902. She attended school only until the age of 13, leaving to find employment in a milliner's shop. She took evening classes in art at Stoke School of Art, after being awarded a three-year scholarship, studying not only pottery decoration but also still lifes and botanical drawing,

Career Taplin began her career in the Staffordshire pottery industry at Green and Co. in Fenton, where she was employed in gilding. In 1928 she was promoted to supervise the paintresses at the newly established hand-decorating studio at the Etruria Works – from 1929, also including the hand-painting department – and continued in this role at the new Wedgwood factory in Barlaston. and by the mid-to-late 1930s was numbered among Wedgwood's main designers. Many of the other women designers at this time were middle class in origin, and they often had close relatives who were designers or artists; lower-class women in the industry were usually restricted to non-creative roles such as dipping. Taplin originated patterns for bone china, Queen's ware, earthenware with whom she collaborated.

Designs and style Among Taplin's early designs were "Kingcup" and "Sun-lit". "Moonlight", "Winter Morn" and "Falling Leaves" were among eleven Taplin designs chosen by Wedgwood for an exhibition of predominantly tableware at Grafton Galleries in London in 1936, along with a smaller number of works by Skellern, Star Wedgwood, Keith Murray, John Skeaping and others. According to Cheryl Buckley, these and other hand-painted designs of the 1930s were "simple, but bold" in their patterns, using "subtle" shades of green, grey, blue and lavender. finding a balance between modernist design and saleability to English consumers in a diminished market after the financial crash of 1929.

With Skellern, Taplin designed "Strawberry Hill" in around 1957, a particularly popular design for printed and gilded bone china, which received one of the earliest Council of Industrial Design's Design of the Year Award in 1957. Several of Taplin's designs are preserved in the permanent ceramics collection of the V&A Museum, Examples of her designs and painted work are also in the permanent collections of the Wedgwood Museum, Barlaston and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.

Personal life Taplin married in 1932, carrying on working for Wedgwood. In 1935 she taught painting and design at Stoke School of Art. Taplin died in 1980.