Rosalind Pulver, a gregarious and sociable woman who collected ceramics and served as meetings secretary of the English Ceramic Circle, has died aged 91.
Early Life and Career
She was born and grew up in London, first in Paddington above her father's menswear shop in Church Street market, and then in Hendon. During the second world war, her father Louis was called up to the Home Guard and changed the family name from Cohen to Collins. Rosalind attended a convent school in Golders Green called La Sagesse, which allowed children to stay until early evening when her mother Sarah could collect her after the shop closed.
After a typing course at Kilburn Polytechnic, she became a secretary at the BBC, working for the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Camden theatre (now Koko) for conductors including Gilbert Vinter and Charles Mackerras. Despite being scared of horses, she joined the BBC riding club.
In the mid-1950s, she moved to Lew Grade's ATV at the birth of ITV, working for Peter Cotes (Sydney Boulting) and then Stella Richman, a pioneering female TV executive.
Marriage and Ceramics
At a 1960 Christmas party she met Martin Pulver, marrying the following year. She gave up full-time work not long after, and Martin joined her family's shop, L Collins, working there until his retirement in the 1990s.
The couple began collecting ceramics in the late 1960s, focusing on 19th-century British pottery and porcelain. Martin became chairman of the Spode Society, while Rosalind was meetings secretary of the English Ceramic Circle for many years. She also published articles of original research on figures such as Samuel Morris and John Downes Rochfort.
Later Life
In the 1990s, she earned a degree in history of art from University College London. After Martin's death in 2015, she moved to Hertfordshire to be near her daughter Elizabeth, living there until early this year.
She is survived by her children Elizabeth and the writer, and five grandchildren: Edward, Katie, Ellen, Lucy and Zoe.
