Essays

Two essays can be read below. Two sets of bound copies, bound by Ursula Jeakins, have been produced (inclusive of illustrations), one for me to keep and the other for the Archives of the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham.

Studio Pottery prices 1920 to 1960

This book-cum-visual essay concentrates on the price of British studio pottery made and purchased between 1920 and 1960. The prices of six potters are considered in detail, namely Norah Braden, Michael Cardew, Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach, Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie and William Staite Murray. Also featured are six key galleries and six prominent collectors/individuals.

Studio Pottery prices 1920 to 1960 in context

The first of these two books - cum essays - concentrated on the prices of studio pottery in four collections.

This second essay attempts to place the first in a wider and clearer context. In the initial study of 249 priced items in the four collections, unexpectedly, three-quarters (187) of them were made and sold in the 1920s and 1930s. A conscious attempt, therefore, is made to correct that balance and concentrate on the second half of the period, particularly the 1950s. Consequently, five potters active in that decade are considered in more detail, namely Hans Coper, Ray Finch, William Newland, Lucie Rie and James Tower. The story begins, though, with Bernard Leach as the dominant public figure of studio pottery in the period 1940 to 1960.