Aldermaston Pottery Unfamilar Mark

I bought this bowl (25cm diameter)on Ebay a couple of years ago. It was described as VTG ALAN CAIGER-SMITH ALDERMASTON POTTERY TIN GLAZE LUSTRE WARE LARGE BOWL. I was puzzled by the mark and when I queried it with the seller he said vaguely it was standard ware. I browsed around on the internet and in the Marks book and found only one similar mark on a mug on Etsy and that was described as Aldermaston Standard Ware.  But I'm wondering  if the mark is for Aldermaston standard ware, then why doesn't one see it more often. I've just had a look at the Jane White book on A C-S and the Aldermston Legacy in the hope that it would help to clarify, but fascinating as it is, it didn't! I'm happy with the bowl  whatever it is, - it's very functional and visually pleasing, but this little niggling puzzle remains. Any help to solve it would be very much appreciated.

The nearest match is Laurence Mcgowan, but not exactly right.
Some of their marks are confusing and infuriating!

These marks were done freehand with a brush so they can often differ slightly from each other. There were a number of people who worked there and whose marks are not in the reference books. It was active for over 35 years, and a lot of people came and went.
There was no overall pottery mark, but they are all variations on the basic A.

Thank you both very much for your replies. I looked again at Laurence McGowan's mark and can see the possible similarity. From a quick search online i discovered he retired in 2017 and was still conributing to a local newsletter in March 2019 - so maybe I will be able to contact him to ask. Philpot, you mentioned in one of your posts on Aldermaston "They did use a generic A for larger cooperative production work." Would this mark be possibly that? And finally do you both thing it's fairly definitely Aldermaston?
Very many thanks again

The apprentice marks were an A for Aldermaston and another letter taken from their name. Not all of them are recorded. This might be by an apprentice who had a surname starting with A so just used an A. Or it might be a partial mark.

Would never have thought of either of those possibilities! Thank you!

That's wax resist, did Aldermaston do much of that? I thought it was all brush decoration?

At the moment, the photos are a bit large, and one cannot see the whole of the mark, and only about half the bowl. So it is a b it difficult to say anything definite.
The signature mark looks pure Aldermaston But the decoration is unusual for Aldermaston. In their standard ware, they mostly used Islamic calligraphic type decoration. On the other hand, they did lots of commission work

Would more photos help?

Smaller sized photos that show everything. The trouble is you might well be asking for something impossible. Complete and utter certainty. Which given the nature of a busy long lived pottery with a continuing changing rota of up to 8 potters, and unknown apprentices you probably will not get.

Is this size any better or is it still too large?

It’s always possible it’s not Aldermaston. There are a few studio potters who made Aldermaston-style pottery but didn’t train there, but this isn’t one of their known marks

I have a x6 set of wax resist lime green Edgar Camden Aldermaston goblets so could still be. I would be 50/50 that it's Aldermaston, could easily be potter post in same style.

There is a photo on the Pottery Studio website
http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/pp.cgi?item=4215
showing the base of 2 bowls with an identical mark along with a 3rd bowl with an A C-S mark, and the description is Caiger-Smith Repeat Ware bowls (marks) 1960. I tried unsuccessfully to save the image in a form that I could upload.

I don't think they were all by ACS. Don't take that attribution seriously for all the bowls.

If he bothered to mark one with his usual flourished ACS mark then why would he mark the next one with a plain A. More likely that those were done by some unrecorded apprentice as mentioned before.

D C BEAL wrote:There is a photo on the Pottery Studio website
http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/pp.cgi?item=4215
showing the base of 2 bowls with an identical mark along with a 3rd bowl with an A C-S mark, and the description is Caiger-Smith Repeat Ware bowls (marks) 1960. I tried unsuccessfully to save the image in a form that I could upload.

Only the middle one is by Alan Caiger-Smith. The other two are by trainee(s); most likely the same person who made yours.

I saw a piece by ex-Aldermaston apprentice, Mary O'Gorman, the other day, with the same style of decoration, so certainly one they used at Aldermaston.

Yes, I realised that only the middle one was by A C-S; but i'd begun to doubt whether my bowl was Aldermaston. But now I'm sure it is.
Many thanks for your assistance