The 1980’s are fondly remembered as the decade of exuberance and progressive attitudes. We saw the rise of the "yuppie," more women in the workforce and an explosion of new cuisines (with the arrival of the microwave heralding the launch of the ready meal). Fast forward to the end of the decade and 1989 saw the launch of the World Wide Web and the arrival of a young and enthusiastic ceramic designer called Richard Eaton at Denby, who championed ‘classic over chintz’. His first design was the stunning Imperial Blue with its rich deep blues contrasting against pure whites in beautifully textured glazes and on bold shapes, including the introduction of the now ubiquitous Denby pasta bowl. Denby's iconic Imperial Blue, the most loved and still one of our best-selling collections, with its enduring and ever-evolving presence, the front-runner of the ‘buy well, buy once’ movement – the epitome of ‘made-to-last’ with all the inherent qualities for which Denby is renowned.

Our Denby community have loved and used Imperial Blue for every day dinners, birthday gatherings, morning coffees over the years and yet still find creative ways to style and enjoy their collection. Imperial Blue still looks as good today as it did 35 years ago and is still a best-selling and most loved pattern sitting as comfortably in a country kitchen next to an Aga as in a DeVol Shaker kitchen painted against Farrow and Ball’s Hague Blue. 

When your ceramics are sustainably made on the same site on which the company was founded with zero process waste and every material recycled, when over 20 pairs of hands craft every piece and several generations of the same family have worked with this clay, when skilled artisans using techniques being preserved and honoured pour love and soul into every pot, when pieces are designed to meet the needs of our users and to be versatile, beautiful and durable, when secret recipe glazes create magical reactions in the kilns, when you use iron-rich clay sourced from a local seam for centuries to create durable, made-to-last ceramics, then that’s when you can claim you make feel-good ceramics.

Like all Denby stoneware, Imperial Blue's effect in reducing our environmental impact means it comes with some serious sustainability credentials and backs up our long-held belief in 'buy well, buy once'. Using local clay and crafted in our pottery which has zero to landfill (recycling our clay, water, glaze and taking power from our on site solar array) and makes made-to-last ceramics guaranteed for 10 years, Imperial Blue leads its field. Add on its versatility around the home, the fact it can be used confidently in ovens, microwaves, dishwashers and freezers and looks amazing too, then with Imperial Blue you truly have feel-good ceramics for creating feel-good moments of your own.