Swinnertons Nestor Vellum ‘Moonglo’ cups and saucers and side plates
made in England, c.1950s
Swinnertons is also a pottery that produced out of Staffordshire, England – where so much pottery seems to originate. This collection is ‘Moonglo’- a delightful epithet that relates to the colours- here we see’ Moonglo Pink’, ‘Moonglo Green’, ‘Moonglo Blue’…you get my drift. I have been unable to deduce why the set is called ‘Nestor Vellum’ – vellum being a type of parchment, but I don’t know what the Nestor refers to. Does anybody else?
The crockery was made in this mix ‘n’ match colour series as a practical way to solving replacement pieces. If you broke a piece you had a number of different colours [eight in all] to choose from. Very modernist. And how funky are those colours?
This set of two cups & saucers and matching side plates are for sale: $AUD55
re:retro 
love the colors!
thanks S&S – i love those 50s colours too. i’d have the whole dinner service if i could.
The mix and match idea is so practical, and also so pretty!
yes, totally agree. nowadays everything is boring white. i like colour, and i especially like 50s colours. ‘Moonglo’ colours!
The colours are so pretty! The best I got from googling Nestor was this:
Nes·tor (nstr, -tôr)
n. Greek Mythology
1. A hero celebrated as an elderly and wise counselor to the Greeks at Troy.
2. often nestor A venerable and wise old man.
hey, thanks hellkat – that would mean a greek hero [old & wise] who…used…parchment? really a obtuse name for crockery. especially when followed by the delightful ‘moonglo’!
Swinnertons used the phrase ‘Nestor Vellum’ for more than just their Moonglo crockery; they also used ‘Luxor Vellum’ on some ranges. There are lots of references on the web to these being ‘patterns’, but as the stamp is used on patterned, as well as unpatterned crockery such as Moonglo, an alternative theory might be that it relates to the type of finish on the crockery.
And a small correction – there are only six colours in the Moonglo range; yellow, lavender, two types of green, a burnt orange and a bold pink.
thanks for your informative comment Jen- and for correction; always good to have detailed information from an expert!