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Marianne de Trey was born in London of Swiss parents in 1913 and trained as a textile
designer at the Royal College of Art. There she met the painter turned
potter, Sam Haile, who she married in 1938. A year later they moved to live in the United States where Marianne began to pot with the help of her husband. Her husband
was drafted into the US Army before transferring to the British Army in 1944
and upon demobilization they moved to near Sudbury in Suffolk, where Haile made
slip decorated earthenware. In 1947 they moved to Shinner’s Bridge on the
Dartington Estate in Devon to take over the pottery that Bernard Leach had used in the 1930s but
a year later tragedy struck when Haile was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Despite her limited experience, Marianne decided that she would try and make
a go of the pottery; initially making slip decorated red earthenware before
moving over to a tin glaze that was largely brush decorated. Despite a
serious fire in 1957, she built up a successful business that was able to
sustain her as well as a number of apprentices and continued until 1980 when
the production of domestic wares ceased. From then on Marianne concentrated of
making small individual pots mainly in porcelain until she finally gave up
potting just a few years ago.
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