Laurie Short

In Search of Laurie Short
By
Barbara Pavey

Laurie Short was a busy potter in the 1970s and 80s. Originally from Devon, he set up Crag Hall Pottery at Millom, Cumbria, in 1974. At that time he made pots in the tradition of Bernard Leach, and his domestic ware displayed its own style within the genre (Figure 1) . Describing himself as making mostly stoneware, but with some porcelain pieces, he said of his work,
The aim is to produce a wide range of pots which are aesthetically pleasing as well as functional, and which reflect something of the landscape in which they are produced (Short, 1980).
Personally I am neither a potter nor a dedicated collector, just one of the many people who appreciate studio pottery.  This has been the case since the 1970s, when I bought my first piece.  At that time I was a member of the Guild of Lakeland Craftsmen/ Craft North; at the end of its life I was the group's Chairperson. For a couple of summers I worked in the Guild exhibition shop, and was able to see at close quarters the work of the many fine potters who were members.  One of the potters whose work I saw then, and bought, was Laurie Short.  
When Craft North came to an end at the close of the 1980s, Laurie was serving as the Crafts Officer for Northern Arts. During one of our last meetings I asked Laurie about his current ceramics work and he told me that he did not find it possible to do that job and then to make pots too. This seems to be confirmed by Potters of Cumbria (Rumbold, 1993), which does not list Laurie Short's name.
In recent years I began to look for Laurie’s work on-line.  I kept finding examples attributed to Simon Leach, and so I would write to sellers correcting them.  No-one on-line seemed to know anything about him or to be able to recognise his work – even auction houses made such errors. Mis-attributIons can occur because both of these potters have, in the past, produced work within the same tradition, and both have used similar marks – 's' placed inside the right-angle of the 'L'.
I gave what information I knew to the website 20th Century Pottery, Glass, Art & Collectables (20thcenturyforum.com). This included Laurie's own account of his training and early ceramics work.  However, identification errors continue. In preparing this piece I looked at on-line images of Simon Leach's work, and found three of them were actually Laurie's, identifiable through the characteristics of his preferred shapes, styles and decoration.
Alerted by Naomi Mott of 20th Century Forum, I began to see other pieces attributed to Laurie Short that I simply could not recognise as related to the work I saw in the 1970s and 80s. These pieces are so very different, being slab- or hand-built, and with differences in the mark, that I have doubted whether they are by the same potter (Figures 2,3,4,5).  However, I have read accounts in NPA News by other potters who have taken a break from their ceramics work, only to return to it at a later date but with a very different approach.  Laurie had such a hiatus; perhaps this was his experience too. I have one example that seems to connect the two styles somewhat (Figure 6).
I looked for details of what Laurie Short had done after Northern Arts ceased to be a Regional Arts board in the later 1990s.  There is little evidence, but it is possible that he may have started a cooperative organisation of some kind. It looks as though he moved away from producing domestic ware in quantity.   In addition to the slab and hand-built pieces, if they are indeed Laurie's, there are pots that look as though they belong to a later stage in his creative development (Figures 7, 8).  These appear aesthetically clearer in design, more assured and relaxed in style, and brighter in glaze, but using motifs that resemble those of his earlier work. However it is unclear whether or not these are actually later pieces, or whether this is just my bias, assigning a later date to certain pots.
I do not know if I am right in my assessment of Laurie Short’s work; I do not even know if he is still potting.  Nowadays more pots with an impressed LS mark are sometimes attributed to him; these are not always his, but at least people are aware of his work.  It would be great to have these matters clarified, and Northern Potters Association members are surely the people who will know best how Laurie's work progressed.  
I would be most grateful if any of the members of the NPA could shed any light on what happened with Laurie Short's work post-1990, and if anyone could give a positive identification to the hand-built work. There are many admirers of studio pottery who would like to feel more confident in attributing work to Laurie Short, or to Simon Leach, or to another potter with a similar mark.