Crockery: Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd at Gallery FUMI
Among the standout exhibitions of this year’s London Design Festival is Crockery, a daring new collaboration between designer Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd., presented at Gallery FUMI from 11 September 2025. The project takes one of the most traditional materials in craft—clay—and pushes it into uncharted territory: functional furniture.
Clay at Its Limits
Ceramics have historically been treated with caution: delicate, decorative, or limited to tableware. Lamb and 1882 Ltd. overturn these assumptions. Their new series of ceramic chairs and stools is created through a process that involves hand-carved plaster models and slip-cast earthenware, painstakingly dried and fired over several weeks. The result is both radical and refined: seating that appears strong and elemental, yet speaks to the fragility inherent in its material.
The Collaboration
The collaboration pairs Lamb’s experimental, hands-on design approach with the generational expertise of Stoke-on-Trent’s 1882 Ltd. Under Em Johnson’s leadership, the company has consistently blended industrial craft with contemporary innovation. Together, designer and factory found common ground in a willingness to test the limits of clay, even when the risk of failure was ever-present.
The Works
Each chair and stool is unique, its surface bearing the imprint of Lamb’s chisel and the unpredictable forces of the ceramic process. Available in shades of white, black, and blush pink, the works embrace their natural hues, the result of firing rather than an applied finish. Their presence is sculptural, almost architectural, yet their function as furniture remains intact.
All Photography: Tom Hartford, courtesy of Gallery FUMI
Why It Matters
Crockery is a statement about material innovation and collaboration. It demonstrates that craft traditions can be reimagined, that design can challenge what we assume to be possible, and that even the humblest materials can take on monumental new roles. For London Design Festival, the exhibition captures the spirit of experimentation that defines the event.
For visitors, the encounter is both surprising and thought-provoking: what does it mean to sit on clay? Can ceramics transcend fragility to become part of our everyday lives? Lamb and 1882 Ltd. invite us to ask these questions—and to experience ceramics in a way we never have before.
Exhibition details:
Crockery by Max Lamb and 1882 Ltd.
Gallery FUMI, London
11-30 September 2025
