Jeremy Leach

Jeremy can do some good stuff at times but I just wanted to share his sales pitch to me several years ago - it was "Buying my work means you get the Leach name at a fraction of the price".

Are they Leach ? Havent split them..as they are obviously linked. Havent put them under Leach...as i'm not sure they are

But why so many marks ?? Your help as ever much appreciated

Jeremy likes his marks! He will have thrown them and his friend Robert will have decorated. There is also the Lowerdown Cross mark (where the Lowerdown pottery was situated). The fish mark is probably a reference to Jeremy's Christian beliefs and the other mark doesn't mean anything to me.

If you bought them today I would say "edge of the city"/Spitalfields perhaps?

Less excited about this vase by Jeremy Leach at Lowerdown that I got in an auction lot recently. Horrible white clay with firing cracks and so-so glaze - no wonder no-one wanted it! 11.6cm (height)

This glazed bowl is 5.1/2" dia. Stamped on base. Could someone help with the potter please.




Thank you.

Yes it is Jeremy Leach's mark when he was working up in London from the late 1950s. I think the pottery (CP = Craft Pottery) was in a crypt of a church near the Elephant & Castle. Apparantly, he couldn't decide whether to become a potter or a vicar!

Just found in Godden that your earthenware bowl was made between December 1962 and June 1963. Jeremy told Geoffrey Godden that he had introduced the seal at Christmas and broke it the following June and never replaced it.

Hi guys bit confused by this normally see this fish with J Leach, but no lowerdown mark, but could be fish pye pottery but getting myself all confused!! help!

Hi, Its very confusing, and whats the "M" all about and two J.Ls!!

full view for you!

It's by Jeremy Leach and was made around 2000 at his Matilda (or Mathilda) Pottery, which was just on the edge of the Moors up the road from his father's Lowerdown Pottery.

It was named after his aunt or great-aunt and I remember buying a few pieces at the time when he came out with the classic line, "with me you get the Leach name at a fraction of the price."

He does like to mark his pots with as many marks as will fit so you get two JLs and the M for the pottery and the fish mark because he is religious!

At the time he also threw pots and had a couple of friends decorating and when that happened the seal of the decorator appeared as well as JL - therefore I suspect that there are two JLs because it was thrown and decorated by Jeremy.

Absolutely certain they are Jeremy Leach. I have three or four of his (and a couple of his dad's). I can't quite understand why his pots regularly go unsold on ebay. I think they are very nicely potted. Maybe when he stops potting they will become more sought after. The last time I visited - about a year ago - the Lowerdown Pottery was still there but much smaller than it was.
But, like the poster above, I have no idea what the mark on the right is.

I wanted to add that the couple of times over the years I've chatted with Jeremy he was really good, helpful, informative & patient. He was more than happy to help talk with no pressure at all. On a third occasion when I was there, talking with a helper, he was grumpy & dismissive. Everyone has off-days.   

My understanding has been that a simple Lowerdown Cross stamp indicates that it may have been potted by David or Jeremy but equally it may have been by anyone else there.

Am I wrong in that?

That's fascinating! I was in Bovey Tracey today - about two miles from Lowerdown. In a MacMillan Nurses charity shop I was shown three pots - after the assistant saw I was looking at pots - that he said were by Jeremy. They were unglazed & looked far more like tourist tat than work by a 'serious' potter. Nothing like the picture above. I was told that they had a box full of them as Jeremy was a big supporter of cancer charities & kept giving them but nobody would buy them. They were asking £8. I had a similar experience in a fairly recently opened vintage shop a little down the hill. The signatures on the bottom were just the same as that. I doubted their description as Jeremy Leach. as they seemed so unusual but now I'm convinced. Pity I didn't ask to take a picture! Basically they were variations on Grecian urns.

A classic design, Jeremy Leach Yunomi  (Tea Cup)

A lovely rich leather colour. Fluted decoration.

What happened here? Couldn't leave these in a Lincs charity shop
yesterday, but they're really not all that nice. Robert Tinnyunt's mark
for the decoration, but large patches of missing glaze on both vases.
Can't imagine it was deliberate, so maybe they were from a "seconds"
basket, or rescued from the skip?

Hi all

Want to grab the advice of you all on this tiny box (about 6cm across). It came with some very well nice bits from St Ives, Winchcombe, Yelland today. It was part of an immense amount of studio that I am now starting to work through. It's well made and has a clear J.L signature on the base. Anyone seen it before? Is it one of the Leaches? (that would be cool)

Found several other items (including a small black box) in the mountain of studio that are by Jeremy Leach so think there is a good chance it is by him.

It's one of Jeremy's pieces and, as he said to me once, with me you get the Leach name for a fraction of the price.

Thanks Studio