LIVE 24-SEVEN
A BUY E R’ S GUIDE RONALD STENNETT-WILLSON:
PRODUCT AND GLASS DESIGNER
Ronnie Stennett-Willson remains one of the most dynamic figures in post-war British glass. Though untrained in business or design, he founded Wedgwood Glass, ran retail and wholesale companies, wrote books on contemporary glass, was Reader in Glass at the Royal College of Art and designed hundreds of items of artistic and production glassware.
Will Farmer is our antiques & collectors expert, he is well known for his resident work on the Antiques Roadshow, he has also written for the popular ‘Miller’s Antique Guide’. Those in the know will have also come across him at ‘Fieldings Auctioneers’. We are delighted that Will writes for Live 24-Seven, he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and expertise.
Stennett-Willson was an unusual hybrid who combined the roles of importer, distributer, designer, academic and entrepreneur. Acting as a travelling salesman, then managing director and talent scout for his various enterprises placed him face-to-face not only with designers and manufacturers, but also with professional buyers and individual customers. Witnessing at close quarters what sold, who bought it and how much they were prepared to pay for it, gave him a clear understanding of the market.
Stennett-Willson was an unusual hybrid who combined the roles of importer, distributer, designer, academic and entrepreneur. Acting as a travelling salesman, then managing director and talent scout for his various enterprises placed him face-to-face not only with designers and manufacturers, but also with professional buyers and individual customers. Witnessing at close quarters what sold, who bought it and how much they were prepared to pay for it, gave him a clear understanding of the market.
By persuading department store buyers and the managers of Britain’s china and glass shops towards the virtues of modern design, Stennett-Willson probably did more than any other to break the stranglehold over the High Street previously enjoyed by Stourbridge’s ‘Big Four’ cut-crystal makers: Webb Corbett; Thomas Webb; Stuart; and Royal Brierley.
Ronald Stennett-Willson was born in Padgate, Cheshire on 23rd November 1915. Educated at local state schools, he moved to London as a boy with his mother and stepfather. After leaving school he worked until 1939 as a junior at Rydbeck & Norström, London-based importers of Swedish glass. Following the war, he rejoined Rydbeck & Norström until 1951 when he was appointed sales manager of J Wuidart & Co., importers of Orrefors and Kosta glass and Rörstrand ceramics. During this period he became Managing Director of Wuidart and designed several ranges of glassware. In 1953 he hired a young travelling salesman, Frank Thrower, whose later career mirrored that of his former boss as the founder and principal designer of Dartington Glass from 1967.
Stennett-Willson left Wuidart in 1961 to spend six years as the Reader in Industrial Glass at the Royal College of Art during what is widely regarded as its Golden Age. Stennett-Willson’s contemporaries at the RCA included many of the
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