Abuja Pottery, Nigeria

 not sure which of the Abuja potters this is but you can see the Cardew influence

Standard Tankard 6" high , Ladi Kwali

looks like thats a ladi kwali pot she is the most renowned abuja potter along with that cardew chap

It has the look of an Abuja potter to me.... possibly Abu Karo.

I've bought and sold a few bits of Abuja pottery over time, they're not really to my taste, bit too heavy and crude, the only one I've kept is this one with kiln damage which I got from Alastair Hawtin's sale last year. Having read Tanya Harrod's Last Sane Man recently it's a miracle that anything ever made it out of Cardew's kilns! Indistinct mark. 12.5cm (height)




Nice bowl with indistinct marks



African-style pot by Bawa Ushafa, one of Cardew's early trainees




Flagon with later 'ABUJA' mark rather than the Arabic one used by Cardew




Rather fine large teapot with chun glaze (?). Unmarked.

I'm fasinated by the mixture of english and west african styles; my Dad met Cardew by the roadside in Nigeria and had a chat in the 50s

Hassan Lapai

The tankard has a dark glaze with lighter incised pattern and is stamped 'ABUJA POTTERY'. The candlestick has the same glaze and the stamp 'JOS'. The teapot is unmarked.

I will post pics but does anyone know how to date Abuja pots?

Jos pottery was a later off-shoot from Abuja I gather.

Not seen the big 'N' mark before

Abuja tankard

The mark reads 'ABUJA POTTERY'

JOS candlestick

JOS candlestick mark

Large teapot

Large Abuja teapot base

Large Abuja teapot detail

climberg64 wrote:

I will post pics but does anyone know how to date Abuja pots?

Unless the pots have an individual potter's mark as well it can be difficult but the Abuja mark in Islamic script was used when Cardew was there and the seal in English seems to be later.

climberg64 wrote:
JOS candlestick

The kiln at the pottery at the Museum complex in Jos was built by Cardew and Michael OBrien in 1963, with money from an American benefactor. The potter that ran it was Cardew's friend, Clement Kofi Athey, who had been with Cadew in Vume. I think he stayed there until around 1990.