The studio
Painted canalware
Roses, castles, humbugs and buckby cans, painted in the towyard by the fifth generation of Marlows.
The towyard
Martha's biscuit tin
Upstairs over the cargo shed is the towyard: two benches, a wall of one-shot enamel tins, and the original biscuit tin where Martha Marlow wrote down her colour orders in 1902. Her great-great-granddaughter Nesta Marlow keeps the shop standard exactly as written, on the grounds that the palette was solved and nobody has improved on a solution.
Every piece is painted by hand over one to three days, signed on the base, and priced by time rather than courage. Commissions welcome; the queue for humbug pattern is currently nine months and worth it.
Painted water cans, the classic towpath object, from £44
& castles
The cabin-side panels in Martha's 1911 palette, from £60
Striped round Crooke pattern, the hardest and the favourite, from £80
Boat names in gold size and one-shot enamel, from £120
Turned stools with painted bands, from £95
Small cans for cabin gardens, from £38