HOOP & GLORY; Cornish Ware comes out of the kitchen to be collectable kitsch.

SEVENTY years ago, T G Green unveiled Cornish Ware - a new range of hand-turned kitchenware decorated with blue and white hoops.

Said to have been inspired by blue seas and white-crested waves, it became the housewife's choice - and has remained popular to this day.

Richard and Sally Dennis began buying Cornish Ware shortly after their wedding in 1969. Sally says it was because her mother had used it.

"Cornish Ware must have been the first casual dining service. You could buy it piece by piece rather than as a set and the variety was enormous. There was everything from breakfast sets to baking paraphernalia and Cornish Ware was the smart, yet thrifty, alternative to bringing out the best china."

Richard recalls: "As soon as Sally expressed an interest in Cornish Ware, I was on the lookout.

In this family, I'm the professional collector but she's the one with the artistic eye." Their Cornish Ware collection began slowly, with pieces bought at local auctions and second-hand shops. With the birth of their two sons, the family grew along with their collection, and other examples of T G Green ceramics joined the sea of blue and white on the dresser.

Sunlit Yellow For Spring, launched in the early 1960s, became part of the collection, along withdotty blue and pale green Domino Ware and Cornish Gold, designed in the late 1960s by Royal College of Art graduate Judith Onions.

Then Richard came across earlier pieces from the 1950s, featuring modernistic ginghams and safari-inspired zebra and tiger stripes. As the couple's interest grew, they discovered more about Thomas Goodwin Green and the pottery he bought in 1851. From 1900 onwards the company was producing classic ceramics, such as the novelty Cube teapot and tableware in traditional and modern styles.

"Initially we collected purely for pleasure. The china was used every day and bits were always gettingbroken.

If you look through our family photographs during the 1970s, the table was always covered with Cornish Ware.

"Suddenly the penny dropped. People were beginning to collect it seriously and we thought we'd better start cherishing this stuff before we broke the lot."

They met other Cornish Wareians, including Paul Atterbury, with whom Richard collaborated to produce a book charting the historic rise of the china.

So why do they think Cornish Ware is such an enduring favourite? "It represents the Fifties when an entire generation was brought up on eating their cornflakes out of a Cornish Ware bowl."

And the real beauty of such a collection is that TG Green ceramics are still available. The company is now owned by the Cloverleaf Group, but it continues to use the same painstaking techniques. The craftsmen who make Cornish Ware still cut the bands freehand on a lathe and etch Domino polka dots by hand.

"When Sally and I visited the factory, we couldn't believe that the chief turner, George Smith, was cutting out the white bands by eye," says Richard. When asked to pick out a favourite, Sally doesn't hesitate. "I'd never part with my labelled storage jars. It's Cornish Ware's signature," she says. OIFyou're interested in Cornish Ware, call the Cornish Collectors Club on: 01298 687070, or fax: [phone].