William Plumptre

Surprised that William Plumptre hasn't had his own thread before now. I'm lucky enough to have three pieces by him: a charger, a big vase and a huge dish or basin.

William Plumptre - Rope mottled Chawan...

William Plumtre - Stoneware Vase, Tricky to Photograph

Green vase, with rope technique to the glaze (I'm sure it has some Japanese name). Bottle form slightly flattened nicely turned foot but sadly no marks, any ideas?

It does have the look of the work of Tatsuzō Shimaoka, who started out working with Shoji Hamada but after Hamada's death became a National Living Treasure himself.

He didn't always use a seal mark i.e. some pieces were unmarked.

I am not saying it is by him and if it was, it would be difficult to actually attribute to him without any provenance.

The painted decoration looks weak in my opinion.

I have checked images of the foot of several Shimaoka pots online and they are glazed within the foot ring as this is. However, the stoneware body of this vase doesn't look right - to me it looks British rather than Japanese clay.

That's a good call, Naomi.

I did consider Shimaoka but drew similar reservations about the clay body and the weakness of the painting also the neck is not typical of his work.

I'm not over familiar with Plumpte's work, but I'll dosimetry research, thank you both for your input.

Good call Naomi, I have emailed William Plumptre and he has confirmed it his one of his.

Speculative ebay purchase pays off