THERE have been many fads and fashions in the ceramics industry over the years, but none more curious than the practice of making pottery in the shape of vegetables!

In the 1920s and 30s, and running through until the 1960s, there was considerable demand in the UK for a wide range of cheap and cheerful pottery that replicated various garden vegetables.

The most common examples were plates which replicated lettuce and cabbage leaves, sometimes with bright red pottery tomatoes along the edges. There were not only plates and bowls made in such odd styles, but even condiment sets, pickle jars and salad servers.The use of vegetables as the basis of pottery designs was known in the 19th century too, but it was not until the late 1920s, the beginning of the Art Deco period, that a big revival took place and a number of the leading pottery manufacturers jumped on this fun bandwagon and started to chum out an amazing variety of weird items.

In their day, they were just seen as laughable novelties, though quite popular at the cheap end of the market. Yet today, they are increasingly seen as an interesting folk art form, and as collectors seek them out around the antique fairs, shops and auctions, prices have already risen to surprising levels.

The key names to look out for are those of Carlton, Crown Devon, and Sylvac, for they were at the forefront of this burgeoning vegetable market and it is their wares that collectors seek first, though there were other, sometimes anonymous, manufacturers also cashing in at the time.

Carlton did a whole range of teatime items based on a lettuce and tomatoes theme, and while a plate or dish on this theme can fetch £25 to £35, rarer pieces can fetch as much as £60 to £80. These rarities would include the combined lettuce dish and server, tongue like items made of pottery, with tiny tomatoes at the tops of the handles.

The Crown Devon company, the trade name of the Fieldings company in Stoke-on-Trent, produced a very similar range in the pre- and post-Second World War period, and their wares are of similar price. Another Staffordshire firm, Sylvac, was most noted for its novelty pottery animals, but it too ventured into the vegetable market place with a whole range of tableware based on beetroot, onion, cucumbers, carrots and cabbage.

The firm stamped its own identity on the veggie world by making a whole series of tableware in the form of lidded pots that were in the shape of the vegetables they were meant to contain, they often had the name of the vegetable embossed on the lids. For example the beetroot pot was bright red, had a detachable lid with the green stalk of the beetroot forming the handle. The pots also had smiley faces.

There were also whole ranges involving horse radish, chutney and coleslaw pots. My favourite is the onion pot, which has a face, but rather than smiling, it is crying!

All these Sylvac pots were sold for just a shilling or two 50 years ago, today their value is typically £30-£40 each among collectors, so they are certainly worth looking out for, as are all other salad-related ceramics from the inter-war period.