Known potter #34: Christine Ball

These three bottles with chun over tenmoku glazes are examples of recent work by Christine Ball. We bought them last year on the way back from a trip to Brisbane. Made using resist techniques, the patterns on the two cylindrical bottles are like shell accretions, oceanic in nature, while those on the spherical bottle are like contours, with the muted colours set off by the white of the clay in all three examples.

Ball lives and works in Uralla, about 24 kilometres south of Armidale.  She has a shopfront on the main street – the Barking Dog Gallery – where she also operates a framing service and sells posters and old frames.  Her workshop is just behind the gallery, within hearing distance of the door bell, so that she can be throwing, decorating or firing pieces in between customers.

When we first stepped into the gallery, we thought for a moment that we were looking at the work of many different potters but, apart from some pieces by Geoff Crispin, all of the pottery on display was Ball’s. After years of making a living as a potter, she is taking time to please herself by experimenting with different clays, glazes and techniques.

She began potting full-time in 1975, after obtaining a Preliminary Diploma of Art at Seaforth TAFE  in 1971 and a Ceramics Certificate at East Sydney Technical College in 1972-73, then spending a year with Derek Smith at his Beecroft Pottery in 1974.  She set up her first pottery at Wheeler Heights using a workshop grant from the Australia Council and, at that time began teaching part-time at Brookvale TAFE.  She moved to Myoora Road, Terrey Hills , in 1978, and in 1981 moved again, this time to Uralla, where she opened the Myoora Pottery Craft Shop, renamed the Barking Dog Gallery in 1993.

The influence of  Derek Smith, who was one of her teachers at ESTC as well as her mentor at Beecroft, can be seen in early works like this one, which play with geometric forms and dry glazes.  In fact, for a while I mistook the  ‘cb’ mark which Ball used from 1972-1978 for a similar mark used by Smith at Beecroft, illustrated in Geoff Ford’s Encyclopedia of Australian Potters’ Marks.  It has only been quite recently, with Ball’s help, that I have sorted out the two marks. Realising how difficult it is to identify and date early works, Ball has published a card with descriptions of the marks she has used over the years:

Ball is an exhibiting member of the Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW and also has entries in the 1982-1988 potters’ directories. Like many potters, she is a collector herself, with a house full of examples of her own work and pieces made by colleagues and former students.

 

Mystery potter #33: Impressed square / mark obscured

This lidded bowl is made from a red-blond stoneware clay. It is not very large – 12.5 cm high, counting the handle, and 14 cm in diameter – but substantial to the feel, with a nice interface between glaze and unglazed clay body and a well-fitting lid. The glaze is a matt pale blue-grey, covered in oxide spots and textured with tiny air bubbles and pin pricks.

We bought this piece at an estate auction last year as part of a job lot that turned out to include a Les Blakebrough lidded box and vase, a Leach Pottery, St Ives, lidded bowl and a Harold Hughan lidded jar.   In this company we were sure that it, too, would be by a known maker working in the Anglo-Oriental style, but we have not been able to decipher the mark, which is hopelessly obscured by the glaze.  Now it must stand on its own merit, like an unmarked work, unless we can find another attributed piece like it, or someone has enough knowledge to recognise its maker in the form, and the materials and processes used to make it.

 

Known potter #33: Andrew Cope

This rocking teapot made by Andrew Cope in 1995 does hold water but getting the tea into it would pose something of a problem. The way it plays on the teapot form appealed to us  when we bought it at Beaver Galleries in the mid-1990s, and we also liked the wavy combed decoration and the inky-blue  drip glaze which, in various colours, is a signature feature of work from this period.

In 1995, Cope was based at Clayworks Australia in Dandenong, Victoria. As a talented young post-graduate of Monash University’s Caulfield Campus, he had been offered a residency there in 1993.  He ended up staying there for ten years, before setting up his own workshop at Byawatha in Rural Victoria in 2003. An article in Pottery in Australia/ The Journal of Australian Ceramics by Clayworks’ Fifi Campbell (42/3, 2003, pp. 80-81) describes the synergies that resulted from the ten year residency.

Our teapot, or at least the ‘teaboat’ exhibition series that it comes from, is mentioned in Cope’s entry in the 1996 Australian Potters’ Directory, as is his interest in synthetic wood ash glazes on manipulated thrown forms. David liked his work so much that he went back to buy this large (33 cm high) vase in shades of umber for my birthday.  It remains his favourite piece, but I secretly like the teaboat better.

Clayworks had a large oil-fueled kiln which gave depth and richness to Cope’s glazes.  A rectangular slab-built tray with combed surface and shino-type glaze attracted the H.R. Hughan Award in 1999, and was the starting point for a new series of trays and bowls (“Clayfever ‘98 awards: The Victorian Ceramics Group’s Annual Exhibition. Review by Andrea Hylands”, Pottery in Australia, 38/1, 2000, pp.48-50).

Probably because he has been able to find a ready market for his work through regular solo exhibitions, Cope has a relatively small web presence – made even smaller recently when his Clayworks featured artist page was taken down in a website restructure. We haven’t had an opportunity to see his recent work, but  there is evidence that he is still busy making a living as a ceramic artist, selling work through Skepsi, demonstrating throwing at the Warrandyte Expo in 2003, and making containers for sale through high-end pantry outlets.

Cope signs his work by incising his full name on the base or side, often with the year as well.

 

Mystery potter #32: ‘M. Leach’

This wheel-thrown lidded pot is made of a rich brown stoneware clay. It has been glazed on the inside in a winter green colour but left unglazed on the outside, except for the tops of the handles and the edge of the lid.  On the base the name of the potter  – ‘M Leach’ – is painted in a cursive hand.

We have only one Australian potter in our database with the surname Leach – Judy Leach, who was a visiting student at Purdue University, USA,  in 1981 (Pottery in Australia, 21/1, 1982, p.43).  David and I did wonder, with no real knowledge, if the potter could have been Michael Leach (1913-1985), Bernard Leach’s younger son, but his entry on the Pottery Studio website suggests that he marked his work with an impressed ‘Y’ for Yelland Pottery.

We listed this pot on eBay a few months ago with a reserve of $49.99 to see if someone might recognise the mark. Although we had quite a few watchers, the listing went through without a bid. We were quite pleased that it didn’t sell. It has a quality that we would like to live with for a while. We have grouped it on the bookshelf behind the counter with a Harold Hughan jar, a Shigeo Shiga bottle and a few other pieces by mystery potters in a similar style. Hopefully, either a gallery visitor or a reader of this blog will come by some day and greet this work as an old friend.

 

Production or art

The Australian Ceramics Association has set up a  poll asking potters to define their ceramic practice in terms of how much of their work is production and how much is art. Without getting into the debate about what is art which is sure to follow, the poll reminded me that the distinction potters make between production ware and one-off pieces does need to be reflected in the critical appraisal of a work, its description, and its price on the secondary market.

Potters’ marks can be an important indicator in this regard. Ian Sprague used the Mungeribar Pottery seal for works produced by apprentices and trainees. For production items that he made himself, he added his own seal and allowed qualified apprentices such as Victor Greenaway to do the same. For one-off pieces he used just his own seal. This practice has been widely-adopted in studios employing a team of workers, and individual potters may also use a different mark for production work.

While I’ve been careful to record marks in our online shop, I had been attributing production works directly to the potter.  I spent yesterday updating entries to include the production-line name in the title, where it has a distinct identity. Thus a shallow bowl marked with the Mungeribar Pottery seal, previously attributed directly to Ian Sprague, is now catalogued as ‘Mungeribar Pottery. Shallow bowl ‘. To ensure that the association with the potter is not lost, the description says ‘Impressed on base with the Mungeribar Pottery seal. (Mungeribar Pottery is the name given to Ian Sprague’s production line)’.

 

Known potter #32: Stephen Fry

This large (23 cm high) spherical stoneware vase with heavily ribbed body, short neck and shino glaze is signed on the base with an impressed ant.  This is the mark of the NSW potter Stephen Fry, who may also sign his works with a painted ‘SF’.

Fry trained at the Salisbury College of Advanced Education in South Australia. He was a resident potter at the Cransley Craft Centre in Campbelltown, NSW, before establishing his own workshop and teaching facilities at Couridjah, NSW. In 1981, approximately 30 people were using the Couridjah Pottery facilities. In 1985, Fry had recently worked in Japan, exchanging a studio and getting a chance to use a Bizen kiln.

This information all comes from Fry’s entries in the 1981 and 1985/1986 potters’ directories. As far as I can see, he has no other presence in the published literature or on the Internet. (It is a little hard to tell, because of the other Stephen Fry.)

When listing items in our online shop, I have been creating entries for each maker. The software I use lets me add a link to more information about the maker. I’ve taken advantage of this feature to link through to my Delicious bookmarks.

For known potters who don’t have much of a web presence, I’ve started to add tag descriptions in delicious, so that I can let users of the online shop know a little bit more about the maker than might be discoverable on the Internet. I can usually find at least one web page which I can tag with the potter’s name, and this then lets me create the tag description.

In the case of Stephen Fry, I must admit to being stumped. I can find no web page or Libraries Australia entry that I can tag with his name.  As a last resort, while it may seem circular, this blog entry can be bookmarked, hence I have created it just for this purpose.

To see how it works, follow this link.

 

Known potter # 31: Cynthia Mitchell

This spherical pourer with lug handle and short cylindrical spout is half-glazed in a silky matt white which enhances the warm-coloured stoneware body. Under the glaze, there is a  band of incised decoration.  The mark on the base is an impressed CM next to an impressed T.  This is Cynthia Mitchell’s mark, with the  T standing for Tasmania, where Mitchell was born in 1930.

Mitchell is mainly a self-taught potter. Her interest in craft was awakened while travelling in Europe after her marriage. On returning home, she met Mylie Peppin and started attending her adult eduction classes. In 1962, she visited Sturt Potteries in Mittagong, and became interested in stoneware, in using local materials and in the philosophies of Bernard Leach and the Anglo-Oriental tradition. In 1963, she set up a studio at her home at Mount Nelson, Hobart, and started making wheel thrown functional stoneware and relief wall plaques, using local dolomite and Coles Bay granite, and exploring the varying effects that could be achieved while only using a small number of glazes.  A visit to China in 1975 with the Australian Potters’ Delegation introduced her to ancient Chinese peasant potteries and forms.

Our pourer is a good example of her work, with its simple form made of local materials, its dolomite glaze and its incised surface treatment.  We have acquired a number of other pieces by Mitchell over the last six years. In fact, we had twenty at the last count.  Prior to that, we had been unaware of her work, which was sold through the Saddlers Court Gallery in Richmond, Tasmania. I assume that, like many potters active in the 1970s and early 1980s, she was able to make a living selling her work locally, and saw no need to exhibit more widely.

Mitchell has entries in the 1974, 1977 and 1981 potters’ directories and is featured in Peta Collins, “Seven Tasmanian potters”, Pottery in Australia, 16/1(1977):10-11.  I haven’t been able to find any more recent information.

 

Mystery potter #31: ‘CL’ or ‘CC’

This finely ribbed 16 cm high stoneware vase has been wheel-thrown and then altered, with flattened sides and rolled-over neck. The body has been glazed black on the inside and exposed lip and a yellow-brown with oxide inclusions on the outside, then decorated with a paler yellow slip on one side. The mark on the base is an incised ‘CL’ or perhaps ‘CC’ with a flourished dot.

Col Levy uses an incised ‘CL’ as a mark on some pieces, but his C is a cypher crossing the top of the L. This, and the impressed version of his mark, are both illustrated in Geoff Ford’s Encyclopaedia of Australian Potters’ Marks.

We thought for some time that the mark on this vase was another version of Col Levy’s incised mark, but Levy himself says not.  This raises the interesting question of who the maker really is. I’ve gone through the other potters in my database with the initials ‘CL’  and ‘CC’ without finding any obvious candidates.

 

Becoming a Wikipedia editor

I publish this blog and its content under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- Share Alike 2.5 Australia Licence. This means that other people can use the content without permission as long as the source is attributed, the use to which it is put is non-commercial, and any adaptation of the work is released under a similar license.

I  occasionally come across text from my blog quoted without attribution in other blogs, discussion forums or eBay listings. It would be nice to be acknowledged, but I try not to mind.  It is good to see information being shared, and I still get a small thrill of anonymous authorship. (Geoff Ford must feel the same.)

Recently I found a  Wikipedia article that had used my content without attribution. Anyone can edit the Wikipedia, so I took it upon myself to add a reference. While I was checking the guidelines on citing sources, I found that a blog is not a reliable source because it is not subject to independent scrutiny.  I wasn’t sure what to do next, but I felt that I had to do something.

The author had included some of my own (reliable) sources as references.  This compounded the injury. I knew that they hadn’t read them!  The rage of a violated author filled me, and then suddenly I saw it all in a different light. I was already de facto a co-author of the article. I would become one de jure. I signed in and added a reference to a key article in Pottery in Australia that had been omitted, leaving a note to explain the addition.

 

Mystery potter #30: Marjo (?)

Visitors to the gallery are fascinated by lidded pots and can’t resist looking inside. David and I pretend not to notice the chink of lids as they move around the displays. We know the pleasure of seeing how well the lid fits, and discovering the finish of interior surfaces.

This lidded bowl is meant to be used as a sugar bowl, but it has all the beauty of a lidded box.  The base is a footed hemisphere with a wide slightly altered rim, in which the domed lid is set. The glaze is a dark celadon over an iron oxide base, with delicate wax resist floral decoration. A narrow pale stoneware shelf is exposed when the lid is removed, its colour echoed in the unglazed foot ring.

The blue lines tracing  transitions in the form and linking decorative elements allude to blue and white china, the muted colours to Victorian furnishings. The style is so distinctive that I feel saddened not to know the maker.  There is a mark inscribed on the base under the glaze, and I can just make out the name ‘Marjo’ or similar. I am half-inclined to think that this is the ACT potter Marjo Jones, although her mark in the 1986 directory is given as  ‘MJ’.