Design Moment: Homemaker, 1955

The design on Homemaker tableware screams mid-century modern. The images in the distinctive, jolly pattern are drawn from popular 1950s household items including a boomerang-shaped coffee table, a reclining armchair, a sleek two-seater couch, a low sideboard, and a tripod standard lamp.

The quirky images are black on white glazed earthenware. Made in Staffordshire, the home of British pottery, the range was designed by Enid Sweeney (1931-1911) who was just 24 when she came up with the up-to-the-minute pattern for the Ridgeway Pottery company. Starting with a dinner service, the range extended to include more complex shapes such as tea cups, coffee pots and tureens. Homemaker was economical to mass produce – the vivid monochrome design was transferred on to the earthenware and the range was sold initially through Woolworths and aimed firmly at middle and lower income young homemakers setting up house in the burgeoning suburbs. Rare examples of Homemaker include the same pattern with a red and white colourway.

By 1968, when the design was discontinued, Homemaker was already looking out of date, its decorative imagery so clearly belonging to a different decade.