It happened like this……I was back in New Zealand on vacation and someone picked up on the fact that – despite the bona fide accent – I wasn't local. "You must be from away, then" she said……..
Hello John
Thank you so much, I understand from David that this pot is now yours, I hope you will enjoy it. Of all the pots that I’ve ever made, this is among the pieces that I’ve liked best. I consider my roots to be firmly in the English tradition, rather than looking to the East, so I wanted to make a teapot with a handle made of something other than bamboo cane a la Oriental tradition. There’s a fair bit of MIchael Cardew influence in it. I once had a teapot of his, made in Winchcombe in the ’30’s, with a handle made by the local blacksmith. Unfortunately I had to sell it when I was hard up a few years ago, but that pot is in this one. It’s pretty large, you’ll get quite a few cups of tea out of it! All the leaves that I used for the decoration were picked from the hedgerow outside the workshop. The decoration process was typically used in Devon on the old harvest jugs of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. There’s one such harvest jug which is now in Hanley museum, which I adore. It uses the cinquefoil leaf, so I always try to use such a leaf on my pots as a homage to those great makers. It’s the one beneath the spout and eithr side of the handle.
We did indeed stay with John and Angela which was lovely- great people, great house, great pots, then to Geoff Fuller’s pub in the evening which was fantastic.
Thank you very much again, I look forward to seeing you at Rufford(if they let me in!)
Hello John
Thank you so much, I understand from David that this pot is now yours, I hope you will enjoy it. Of all the pots that I’ve ever made, this is among the pieces that I’ve liked best. I consider my roots to be firmly in the English tradition, rather than looking to the East, so I wanted to make a teapot with a handle made of something other than bamboo cane a la Oriental tradition. There’s a fair bit of MIchael Cardew influence in it. I once had a teapot of his, made in Winchcombe in the ’30’s, with a handle made by the local blacksmith. Unfortunately I had to sell it when I was hard up a few years ago, but that pot is in this one. It’s pretty large, you’ll get quite a few cups of tea out of it! All the leaves that I used for the decoration were picked from the hedgerow outside the workshop. The decoration process was typically used in Devon on the old harvest jugs of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. There’s one such harvest jug which is now in Hanley museum, which I adore. It uses the cinquefoil leaf, so I always try to use such a leaf on my pots as a homage to those great makers. It’s the one beneath the spout and eithr side of the handle.
We did indeed stay with John and Angela which was lovely- great people, great house, great pots, then to Geoff Fuller’s pub in the evening which was fantastic.
Thank you very much again, I look forward to seeing you at Rufford(if they let me in!)
Very best wishes
Doug
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