Michael Cardew

Good afternoon,
I thought I would share this I recently bought a lidded pot from auction stamped with Michael Cardew’s mark and the Winchcombe pottery mark.
I have some early work by Cardew when he was at Leach and he was proficient in Slipware calligraphy by the time this pot was produced c. 1930’s.
I am confident that the word ‘flour’ was written by an early Ray Finch …..thoughts?

There is an illustration of A Ray Finch charger with sgrafitto lettering circa 1940 on page 34 of the Ray Finch Edgeler book, The script does not look anything like this. On t'other hand, the script is very highly accomplished indeed. Ray Finch obviously learnt very quickly indeed since starting in 1937.

Hi Philpot,
The larger pot is one I did a lot of research on, corresponding with Blatherwick, Alex Mcerlain, Matt Grimmitt and through Matt -Joe Finch who confirmed the lidded Jar marked. ‘Whiting’ was a very early jar made by Ray probably for a friend with a kiln.
If you search the books you will find that the W was reproduced latterly by Ray in the same idiosyncratic way only much more accomplished.
The writing on the smaller jar has Cardew’s stamp but Finch’s writing.
agreed by Matt Grimmitt.
I know little about pottery but the slip calligraphy on the two jars is the same ‘handwriting’ in my opinion shared by Matt.
I accept it’s not easy because there are no identical letters for direct comparison but I had 7 initially some large some small and if I looked through the photos I am sure I can find some but in my opinion it is unnecessary.
The writing is Rays the pot is Michaels.
Kind regards
Neil62

My apologies - I missed Sue’s name out!

The big question of course. Is it worth more as a Michael Cardew piece? or a hybrid!

Of course - my thoughts were for me continually looking back at the past and with an eye to value - it is unusual hence I paid much more for it than It think it’s worth!!!
The 12 pieces I bought (7 of these ‘Pooh bear honey pots’ and 5 by Sid Tustin) cost less than the Cardew piece!
Why ……because I was foolish & stubborn!!!
Kind regards
Neil62