Early Richard Batterham - RB mark England stamp

Hi,
New to the forum is there anyone who can identify whether this was Richard’s or Rueben’s mark.
I bought the piece as part of a lot consisting of 4 pieces - all were sold to me as by Richard Batterham from his Durweston estate.
There was no mention in the catalogue of the marks or the damage which is substantial.
I have questioned whether it was by Richard with the Auction House……they initially just didn’t answer and then when pushed refused to answer that question and others!!

Welcome to the forum, I look forward to seeing your other pots

The England stamp would date it to c.1970s which rules out Reuben. My money’s on Richard.
Seems to be the right font, but it’s missing the dot

Many thanks

Thanks Dantheman - I’ve got a few you might like they are virtually all associated with the Leach Pottery!

Good morning,
I have been reading the thread regarding the early mark by Richard Batterham and the conversation Studio Pots had with Rueben.
I think some of you will remember my moaning about a lot I bought at the Wooley & Wallis auction of Richard’s estate consigned by his family. In fairness to myself I had only just started collecting and I think it was my naïveté which resulted in the moan.
Anyway I was contacted by a forum member recently about the pot which resulted in a bit more research and my reading of the thread.
I thought I would throw this in the mix but then couldn’t locate the thread to add it.
I do think it relevant . I corresponded with Michael Jeffrey from W & W. He informed me that the piece was made by Richard and that the family had told him that Richard broke the little bud vase himself and mended it himself.
I did try to correspond with Ruben but got no response unfortunately.
Anyway the piece not only has the RB impressed stamp - not R:B but it also has the impressed ENGLAND stamp. That puts it out of range of Ruben as he wasn’t born until 1967.
Given the provenance the only reasoned logical conclusion I can reach is that this mark RB is Richard Batterham.

Thanks SP reliable as always.

Great info 

Your original thread 

https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t30797-rb-mark-probably-richard-batterham?highlight=Batterham


Related threads 

https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t18310-rb-mark-plus-leach-jug-early-richard-batterham


https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t18310-rb-mark-plus-leach-jug-early-richard-batterham?highlight=batterham

Its ok, I found your original thread - now merged with this one

Are the extra photos any good Naomi?

I’m afraid I couldn’t make out the mark on them

Is that because of my settings?
I took a picture blew it up and then took a screenshot but it was too large to load in terms of Pixels I think

I think the max size our photo hosting facility can cope with is 5mb. If you can crop the photo on your camera or phone before posting it it should reduce it to a manageable size

I’ll try!!

The mark at the bottom looks like the ENGLAND  mark used on Leach standard ware. in The Yates Owen book it sates under the Richrd Batterham entry 'RB Impressed in square or oval occasionally with ENGLAND'. A very interesting find! Ricahrd Batterham was at St Ives in 1956/57. He met his future wife there.

Hi Philpot - it is England I posted it on my first listing - it’s a mess.
The only relevance is it’s Richard Batterham and his mark.
I had been reading the thread from some time ago and it provides clarity for his impressed mark.
Kind regards
Neil62

Thanks for that. I wonder if the mark adds great deal of value to the piece? WELL DONE!

philpot wrote:Thanks for that. I wonder if the mark adds   great deal of  value to the piece? WELL DONE!

Thanks for that Philpot - I was keeping it as a reminder NOT to forget condition reports but it is really badly damaged.
I had forgotten it had the ENGLAND stamp on it and had actually thought it was more likely by Ruben but he wasn’t born until 1967 and obviously the England mark would be 60s. Michael Jeffrey was insistent that Richard made it Broke it and then repaired it. All of which came from Richard’s family.
Kind regards
Neil62

Looks good from where I’m sitting !!!

Very interesting! Is there any concrete evidence elsewhere in the literature as to if Richard Batterham had his own mark at St Ives in the mid 50's? Given the relevant era? Things settling after the Janet Leach hurricane? Were things more lax?

It is strange that if this was produced whilst at Leach that it doesn’t have the Leach mark.
Even Bernard used both marks & the England stamp as did everyone else there even when making their own work rather than standard ware.

So I wonder whether these were produced by Richard after leaving Leach - still great and I wonder if there are pots made by him with both his own stamp & Leach.

Another possibility is he left Leach with the England stamp and used it as he was trained to do so.
The stamp wasn’t unique to Leach pots but it did seem to be used more.
I confess I can’t bring to mind another pottery which used it so regularly!

Richard Batterham met his future wife Dinah at St Ives of course, She had been there since 1953 They formed a close knit friendship with Atsuya Hamada. Richard was also very ill for over 5 months when he was there,