Reginald George Haggar ARAC, NRD (from 1940)
Born 25 December 1905
Died 4 December 1988
Active: 1929 - 1953
Country of birth and death: England
Painter, designer, art director, art school principal, writer, lecturer, ceramic historian
Born in Ipswich, Suffolk. Haggar studied painting in Ipswich and then 'pictorial design' at the Royal College of Art. He moved to the potteries to become designer at Minton's. Haggar initially disliked the potteries, he recalls that Stoke was then 'a very grim place' but gradually came to love the area.
He was heavily involved with the Society of Staffordshire Artists and the Northern Ceramic Society (president). He published many books on pottery and the potteries including: 'English Pottery Figures 1660-1860'; 'English Country Potters'; 'The Masons of Lane Delph'; 'A Century of Art Education in the Potteries'; 'Staffordshire Chimney Ornaments'; 'The Concise Encyclopedia of Continental Pottery and Porcelain'; 'The Concise Encyclopedia of English Pottery and Porcelain' with Wolf Mankowitz; 'Mason Porcelain and Ironstone 1796-1853' with Elizabeth Adams.
He died at Wetley Abbey Nursing Home, Leek, Staffordshire.[see Elliott (2004), pp.19-30]
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibition committee member for Eleventh Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists (City of Stoke on Trent Museums and Art Gallery, Hanley), 1945
March 1945
Exhibition committee member for Exhibition Recording the Changing Face of the Potteries (Society of Staffordshire Artists), 1949
November 1949
Listed as a member of the organising committee and as Chairman of the selection committee.
Selection committee member of Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists (City of Stoke on Trent Museums and Art Gallery, Hanley), 1942
March 1942
Institutional and Business Connections
Employed at Minton and Company
1929 - 1935 (Presumed)
Assistant designer at Minton; after six months became Art Director. On his departure from Minton he recalled:'I left in the middle of the week without notice. I knew that if I did not go myself they would have given me the sack.' [quoted in Elliott, 'Potters', 2004, p. 19]
Honorary secretary of Society of Staffordshire Artists
1940 (Presumed) - 1944 (Presumed)
From 1943 listed only as 'Secretary'.
Member of Society of Staffordshire Artists
March 1942
Member of selection committee.
President of Society of Staffordshire Artists
1945 - 1951
Principal of Stoke School of Art
1934 - 1941
Listed as 'Master in Charge' of Stoke School of Art [see 'Schools of Art Prospectus' (1938-39), p. 5].
Listed as Master of Stoke Art School from 1934-4 [see Haggar (1953), p. 43]. According to Elliott, 'Potters', 2004 Haggar was headmaster at Stoke from 1935-41.
Principal of Burslem School of Art
1941 - 1945 (Presumed)
The biographical notes in Elliott, 'Potters', 2004 name him as headmaster of the art school in Burslem between these years, he left to pursue an independent practice as full time artist, writer and lecturer
Teacher at Stoke School of Art
1938 (Presumed) - 1939 (Presumed)
Listed as tutor of 'life, head, design, model making, window display etc.' at Stoke School of Art [see 'Schools of Art Prospectus' (1938-39), p. 6].
Sources
A Century of Art Education in the Potteries. With notes on the Artists, 1953 Local Studies
1953 (Circa)
p. 1 - Haggar was author of this text
A Dictionary of Ceramic Artists
2007
p. 71.
City of Stoke-on-Trent Schools of Art Prospectus, 1938-1939
12 September 1938
pp. 5-6.
Eighth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists, 1942
March 1942
p. 1.
Exhibition Recording the Changing Face of the Potteries, 1949
November 1949
p. 1.
Ninth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists, 1943
March 1943
p. 1.
Potters
2004
pp. 19-30
Seventh Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists, 1941
April 1941
p. 1.
Sixth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists, 1940
February 1940
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists Seventeenth Annual Exhibition, 1951
March 1951
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Autumn Exhibition, 1945
November 1945
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Eleventh Annual Exhibition, 1945
March 1945
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Fifteenth Annual Exhibition, 1949
March 1949
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, 1948
March 1948
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Thirteenth Annual Exhibition, 1947
April 1947
p. 1.
Society of Staffordshire Artists. Twelfth Annual Exhibition, 1946
March 1946
p. 1.
Tenth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Staffordshire Artists, 1944
March 1944
p. 1.
Citing this record
'Reginald George Haggar ARAC, NRD (from 1940)', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1218793110, accessed 27 Sep 2023]
