This copper pot was designed, made and signed by John Pearson (one of the foremost Arts and Crafts movement copperwork craftsmen of the time) in 1901, and was given in 1928 to the Horticultural Society by Dame Henrietta Barnett, the first President of the Society, to be awarded annually for the winner of the best garden.

History

Due to unemployment and the vagaries of the fishing industry at the end of the 19th century, classes in various arts and crafts were started in and around Newlyn in Cornwall as a means of improving the welfare of and occupying the fisher lads when they were not at sea. The Newlyn 'industrial class'  of brass beating was started in 1890. Since local artists were themselves ignorant of this process, the Cornish MP, Mr Bolitho, commissioned the Whitechapel artist, John Pearson, to come down to Cornwall in around 1892 to teach the teachers, which he did for five or six years. With his influence, and through the developments introduced by other artists, Newlyn Copper flourished and became a thriving art movement and a commercial success.
 
At that time Pearson already had a reputation as a highly-skilled craftsman and designer, having been a founder member of the Guild of Handicraft.  Pearson produced quite a few pieces of repoussé copperwork himself, many bearing motifs of fish, ships, flowers and trees.  Some of these are well demonstrated on this copper pot, made in 1901, probably after his return to London, which Dame Henrietta Barnett presented in 1928 to the Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society, of which she was the founder and first President. 
 
The engraved plaque on the separate wooden base reads: This copper pot, designed, made & signed by John Pearson in 1901, was given in 1928 to The Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society by Dame Henrietta Barnett, DBE, the first President, to be held as a trophy & awarded annually for one year to the prize winner of the best garden. According to its second plaque, it seems to have been awarded from 1929 to 1937.  Whether the society stopped awarding it then, or whether it just stopped adding names to the plaque is not known.