Jim and Nan McKinnell

This strange but lovely little pot belonged to my mum, and was made by the US potters, Jim and Nan McKinnell. They were friends and associates of Katie Horsman who taught ceramics at Edinburgh College of Art, and often visited Scotland teaching, socialising and working with other potters. My mum, a student of Katie's had met them around 1950, and kept in touch, getting Christmas cards and letters from them each year.

The McKinnells spent a long period working in Scotland during 1969-70, and this lead to a sizeable exhibition of their work in the Scottish Crafts Centre. According to the Crafts Centre Magazine

No. 20, for Autumn 1970 "The private view was a great success with pots selling like hot cakes." I suspect this pot might date from this time, but it would be good to find an exhibition catalogue, or photos which might confirm this.

They mostly made pots as a team, simply signed "McKinnell". Their pots are in many ceramics collections in the USA, but seem scarce in the UK. There are quite a lot of images of their pots online, but I can't find any that look like this one!