This exceptional hand-sculpted Martin Brothers stoneware vessel stands 5.5" high by 3.5" in diameter. It has a very nice gourd form, with five distinct ribs cloaking the body. It is glazed in a palette of earthy brown tones, very rich in its presentation. This gourd vase is well-signed Martin Bros, 4-1907, London & Southall, incised by hand and filled with slip, which makes the marks easy to read. There is a code, which looks to be 'WX2', perhaps the potter's mark. This was likely an 'Edwin' vessel, as he was the decorator. This vessel is in original studio condition, no apologies. A photo included in this listing shows three of the Martin Brothers in their studio. Martin Brothers (1873–1923) was a London-based pottery manufacturer owned and operated by four brothers, Wallace, Walter, Charles, and Edwin, whose productions bridged the gap between the Victorian design sensibilities of the late-19th century and the English studio pottery movement of the early 20th century. Martin Brothers produced stoneware pottery, broadly referred to as Martinware, including bowls, vessels, tiles and novelties that were often rendered in a whimsical yet highly skillful style. 
A bit of history from a British Antiques column by Roland Arkell...Martin Brothers production began in 1873 with a kiln at the family home in Fulham and expanded in 1877 with a move to a disused soap works on the canal on Havelock Road in Southall, where sporadic production would continue until 1923. Eldest brother Robert Wallace modeled the figures, Walter fired the kiln, mixed the glazes and threw the pots, Edwin was chiefly the decorator while youngest brother Charles ran the City shop – badly. Wildly eccentric, even by the standards of his siblings, he hated to part with any of the wares, hid the best of them under the floorboards, and turned away many a prospective customer. Eventually, the shop burned down, the brothers lost their stock, and Charles his sanity. 
There was a less-than-commercial approach to production. A single high-temperature kiln was fired just once a year without protective saggers which meant every pot was in direct contact with the flames. The result was a very unpredictable output (on one occasion, only one good pot emerged from an entire year’s work) but the pieces that did emerge were often Victorian art pottery at its best – a vast range of beautifully formed and decorated domestic and decorative wares, sometimes whimsical, sometimes comical, sometimes dark.
Robert Wallace Martin’s most coveted creations are his Gothic-inspired creatures – particularly the anthropomorphic bird jars, glazed in the subdued palette of browns, greens, greys and blues so distinctive of Martinware. These characters from Victorian London (the earliest is dated 1880) were professional types, public figures and local waifs and strays modeled in avian form and have become iconic objects in the history of British decorative arts.
But it is not all about the birds. (David Rago sold a bird humidor in 2018 for $112.5k)
Martinware collecting can itself be split into a number of niche markets with some collectors focusing on the less familiar but equally evocative grotesques (the face jugs, the musical imps and the wonderful spoon warmers), the thrown and incised vessels that offer the full Martinware experience at lesser price levels or the appealing range of miniatures and gourds.