Port Vale 1898-02

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Burslem Port Vale won re-election back into the Football League Second Division. Their FA Cup win over First Division champions Sheffield United in the 1897-98 season won the respect (and votes) needed at the League’s Annual General Meeting. Vale endured a few seasons charging to the summit of the league only to fall into mid-table obscurity, maintaining a decent defensive record only to struggle in front of goal.

Poor attendances were an issue over the turn of the century. On a positive note, the club managed to make a profit without selling any major players. Most coming from the club’s annual Easter bazaar at Burslem’s Town Hall.

Ceramicist Lucien Boullemier was an English footballer and ceramic designer. A right-half, he played competitively for both Stoke City and Burslem Port Vale. After a transfer from their local rivals in 1897, he made over 150 appearances for the Valiants who were then based at the Athletic Ground in Cobridge.

After a few years in the United States he returned to England and worked at Mintons factory and then at the Soho Pottery on Waterloo Road in Cobridge, before being recruited by C.T. Maling of Newcastle-upon-Tyne to take charge of their decorating department.

Until 1926 he had been engaged in painting quite high-class porcelain, and he introduced a range of more glamorous designs into the mass-market Maling range, using gold printing techniques and lustrous surfaces.

In 1933 he was joined at the company by his son, Lucien George. Three years later, he left to work for the New Hall Pottery Company in Staffordshire, where he produced a range called “Boumier Ware”, each piece of which carried his facsimile signature.