Salt glazed Jug - possibly John Chappell, New Zealand & Australia

102 high , salt or soda glazed jug ,

No markings on the base , just the impressed marks of JC and ?

Worth sending a picture of the mark to the V&A and asking if it matches the mark on their John Chappell jug & bottle.

Thanks Naomi , Iv'e tried the V&A before they never reply , just say will get back to you we are really busy , but spotted this after your suggestion

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O19228/wine-jar-chappell-john/

Don't want to build up my hopes , but stoneware , form , salt glaze , initials etc ,

It is a quality jug.
I'm surprised how few examples of John Chappell's work there are online, considering how highly thought of he seems to be.

It was to me too , but he died at age 33 , in Australia in a motorbike accident near Sydney Harbour Bridge , he worked in cornwall but went to Japan and N Zealand , Australia ,so maybe not that much work about , he wrote and taught as well , found this

http://www.potters.org/subject06919.htm/

Ah, that explains the couple of pieces listed on Liveauctioneers, auctioned in New Zealand.

The stamp next to JC looks like a head, but there's no mention of a second mark on Cappell's pieces.

I am not sure if it is a head my OH thinks it is but it's not clear , the only mark i can find is in the studio book JC but in his travels maybe another mark could have been used as well , BTW Naomi , thanks for the V& A link to his pieces , I will try and contact them to confirm or not , but I am pretty sure it's his the V&A wine jar mentions green flecks in the neck , mine has this as well .

Sometimes the museums have Uni students working over the summer who could answer your query. I usually send them photos that they can add to their records to sweeten the deal.

Might be worth contacting this blogger - http://australianpottery.wordpress.com/ - to see if he's come across any of Chappell's work or the second stamp, which may be one of the Australian or Japanese pottery that he worked in.

There is a picture of the mark on the V&A wine jar in the Oliver Watson book "British Studio Pottery". In your picture the C is distinctive but in the V&A picture the C is difficult to make out and I suspect that this is the case when looking at it in reality, as the mark description in your link to the V&A collection page adds a ? after saying it is JC. Both marks are impressed seals though but the V&A pieces have no other mark.

The V&A pieces were from his last exhibition in New Zealand where he was heading with the Japanese potter, Takeichi Kawai, when he died.

Therefore these were some of the last items he made and to me the handle on your piece looks much better than the rather weak handle on the wine jar. That doesn't prove that your piece isn't by him, as potter's skills don't always improve with experience, as a glance at De Waal's recent work proves.

What part of the country did you buy your jug from Ed?

To answer my question I see that you bought it at Malvern. The reason for asking is that when working in the UK John Chappell was based in Hertfordshire (just north of London).

Hi John , I bout it at Malvern antiques and giant flea fair on sunday for a £5, the dealer is known to me and usually knows his stuff , he sells Welch Wallwork , etc. but new nothing of this piece ,

this bottle at the V&A says mark is JC impressed no question mark so probably clearer than the wine jar , I have emailed a couple of people in Australia Sturt gallery and Les Blakebrough for their opinions .

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O19227/bottle-chappell-john/

A picture of some of John Chappell's work from 1954 where the handles seem more like yours.

That's a little better but I'll try again later

Thanks for all your help all , it's great to see the detective work in action trying to place a piece , I notice the V&A state that their piece are made in britain , I'm not so sure about that , that would place them much earlier than the 1963 they suggest , I don't know how much expierience Chappell would have had being so young when he died .

The Oliver Watson book states that the V&A pots were bought from his widow in New Zealand in 1966 and were shown in the 1963 exhibition (The wine jar cost the V&A £8). Chappell set up a kiln at Do Mura Shiga-Ken, Japan in 1962 and as he was travelling with a Japanese potter when he died that suggests that these pots were made in Japan and he was travelling to the exhibition after sending them ahead.

The book also says that he started potting as a hobby in 1950 and followed this with studies at Pendley Centre of Adult Education under Murray Fieldhouse before setting up a pottery in 1953 when he started to salt-glaze. In between these dates he had been in Algeria but probably not potting. The pots in the image I posted were from the Pottery Quarterly (Summer 1954) where there is an article about making saltglaze stoneware by Chappell - as Fieldhouse was the editor of this periodical there is a contection. It seems that Chappell only potting in the UK until 1956 and then went to Sweden to earn money as a cook and English teacher in order to save to go to Japan. He was in Sweden for 3 years before saving enough, so his pottery career seems to have been around 9 years maximum.

Thanks for all that John , much appreciated , he appears to have acheived quite a bit in his short life , I have a Pottery Quarterly from 1962, he is listed as one of the authors and illustrators , but guess what those pages are missing in my copy , Amazing that the V&A paid £8 , mine was only £5 , assuming it is by him ( I'm 99% sure), great to find out things about a potter who only yesterday I had never heard of

Just had Confirmation by Email as follows .
Dear Eddie

I knew John pretty well, he was responsible for my visit to Japan
1963/4, and he worked with me briefly at Sturt Pottery at Mittagong in
NSW in 1962, and again in 1964 just before he died of a motorcycle
accident a couple of days before our two man show together.

The form of the piece I am unfamiliar with although there is no doubt
John Chappell made the piece, and the seal is his. I can offer no help
in identifying the other seal alongside his JC mark. My best guess is
that it was made in New Zealand in 1962. He had gone there at the
invitation of Helen Mason while he re applied for his residency visa
in Japan. On the way to Auckland his ship stopped in Sydney for ten
days and I looked after him for that time at Sturt Pottery.

Hope this helps
Regards Les

the above was from Les Blakebrough , below is from new Zealand Gallery
Dear Eddie

Thank you for your email with regard to your vessel with the marks probably by John Chappell.

John Chappell a disciple of Leach had worked in Kyoto, Japan and knew Takeichi Kawai in the late 1950's and early 1960's. He visited New Zealand in 1961, teaching and exhibiting and was due to return in 1963 but died from a motor cycle accident in Sydney.
The mug that we hold may have been from his visit to New Zealand.
The marks that you sent certainly resemble those of the work that we hold and certainly for the images on the V&A site, the work looks to be very similar to the work in that collection.

You may be interested in a book recently published that discusses John Chappell. Conetendown: studio pottery in New Zealand, 1945-1980, was published in 2009 by David Bateman and written by Moyra Elliott and Damian Skinner. I hope that this might be of some help to you.

yours sincerely


Justine Olsen
I will place these in a new thread later for reference

dantheman wrote:so are you certain that it's a John Cappel piece?

100% , started a thread in studio, not that many pics will be added , apart from the one that John posted, not sure if I'm allowed to post V&A pics


Another one here:

https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t28756-early-salt-glazed-coffee-set-lighthouse-mark#200720