Lest We Forget

A new collection by Moorcroft pottery has been launched to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One. The poppy, Britain’s national symbol of remembrance and a Moorcroft speciality for more than 100 years, is depicted in their Collection of Remembrance.

Our favourite design from this collection is, without doubt, the stunningly beautiful and evocative Lest We Forget by Kerry Goodwin. Kerry, now in her fourteenth year as a Moorcroft designer, is one of those artists who can pick a subject and, no matter how sensitive or sorrowful the theme, can translate the emotions into a meaningful object of beauty.

She has contributed images which emerge directly from the mud-filled trenches, the brutal weapons of destruction and scatters them across a barren, scarred landscape. But watching over the derelict battlefield from the clouds above are the silhouettes of the soldiers who paid the ultimate price for their country.

Even so, they live on among the destruction represented by poppies, insects and birds that came back to the landscape once the silence returned.

Lest We Forget cleverly combines the harsh reality of warfare with a serene reminder of the return to nature and renewal of life after death.

The name of the design comes from a masterful poem by Rudyard Kipling who, in the same year that William Moorcroft first started designing in 1897, wrote ‘Recessional’, a fitting accompaniment to Kerry’s message within this design.

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Words extracted from Moorcroft Pottery’s description.

Moorcroft Pottery’s Lest We Forget is available to order by telephone from The Gift Shop at Ashwood (Telephone 01384 275955).

It is a 9ins (22.5cm) vase, shape 9/9, and a numbered edition

Price: £526.50