Wally Birds and other fantastical creatures

The story of the Martin Brothers.

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Hello, my lovely paid subscribers! Have I mentioned how good-looking you all are? And so smart!

So, I went through the stuff left over from my email earlier this week, and I’ve decided to tell you about Wally Birds. (That’s one of them up above.) Wally Birds were the creation of four brothers — Robert, Walter, Charles and Edwin Martin — who are credited with starting Britain’s first art pottery. Based in London from 1873 to 1914, the Martin brothers created a lot of perfectly nice pots in neutral colors, but they ALSO made some amazingly bonkers other stuff, and that stuff is particularly collectible today.

Like, look at this crab: