Below is a selection of Darbyshire pottery.

Many of the figurines would not be made today. These figurines were a product of their time, the 1950s; when designers of fabrics and pottery used motifs derived from Australia’s native fauna and flora and also appropriated Indigenous Australian art, in an attempt to express a new national identity. DP figurines are perhaps less kitsch and more respectful than similar ones made at the time, but they can still be viewed as objectifying and stereotyping Aboriginal people (who were fighting politically at that time for freedom to exist outside of the harsh Government laws that controlled them and it wasn’t until 1967 that Aboriginal people were granted citizenship and the right to vote for the first time). You can read more on this issue in this essay: Spennemann, Dirk H. R., 2022, Appropriating “Aboriginal” Australian Art in the Atomic Age, Cultural Appropriation and Stereotyping of Indigenous Australia in Gift and Souvenirs Ware of the 1950s to 1970s.

We are always interested in seeing images of pieces not represented here.