Troika was an art pottery operating in Cornwall from 1963 to 1983.
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Troika was set up in February 1963 by Leslie Illsley, Benny Sirota, and Jan Thompson, who each put up £1000 to take over the Wells Pottery at Wheal Dream, St Ives, Cornwall.[1] They wanted to pursue their vision of pottery as art, without regard to function. This ran counter to much of the studio pottery movement at the time, as epitomised by the work of Bernard Leach. The Troika Pottery was based at the Wheal Dream site in St Ives, Cornwall, from 1963 to 1970, when it moved to Newlyn where it remained until its closure in 1983.
The venture rapidly became successful, gaining both critical praise and high sales through a combination of the summer tourist trade and contracts with department stores such as Heals in London.
Troika had two main ranges of ceramics — the rough textured range and the smooth glazed ranges. Although there was some crossover in shapes and styles between the ranges, they each had different characters and different successes. Today, the rough glazed wares are more popular and numerous, although the smooth glazed wares are rarer and amongst some collectors, more sought after.