The Leach Pottery. St Ives

She did this with 4 different styles of dishes that I am aware of and some small footed teabowls as well. They were really only for sale at the pottery and were items that were more affordable than her more individual pieces.

For most of the time that she made them she had no-one to help her so my view is that she would have made most of them.

It was only towards the end of her life that she employed Joanna Wason to assist her.

However, compared to Shoji Hamada she was most definitely hands on. Hamada employed people throughout his career to throw most of his pots and others to make his press moulded bottles. He only decorated the majority of his pots but did say that he threw all of his chawan as well as decorating them.

NaomiM wrote:Pretty sure there's a blooming great thumb print in the middle.  

Tbh, I don't think she was a very good potter.

In my opinion she was one of the most talented studio potters ever and she has to be admired for never making "Leach pots". She never played safe.

Of course some of her pots were pretty bad but considering the amount of alcohol she consummed it isn't that surprising.

big ed wrote:I am liking her more and more ,boozing and potting , can't be bad eh?   

I met someone in the 1990s in the antique business, who knew nothing about studio pottery or that the Leach Pottery was important.

He told me that the only potter he had met was in a "retreat" from which they both went awol over the wall and down to the local pub one night. That was Janet.

The honey/jam pot above would have been thrown by Bill Marshall and decorated by Bernard Leach, which isn't meant to suggest that it is any less of a Bernard Leach pot. If Bernard had thrown it then it would have been!

It will have been made later than you suggest though c 1960.

Just checked the "circle" book and see what you mean.

Maybe if you buy pots from a chocolate shop in Bond Street in 1959 they'll tell you anything to make a sale!!!!

I suppose if the one in the Wingfield Digby collection is a prototype it could have been made in the late 1930s but I was told by Bill Marshall that they started to be made on a regular basis in the early 1950s and this continued into the 1960s. There is one similar to the Wingfield Digby one on the cover of the Leach Pottery 1954 catalogue.

Why I have gone for c 1960 for your example is that Bernard's brush decoration on yours lacks the dots of the Wingfield-Digby and the catalogue examples and these tend to be attributed to later in Bernard's life.

Bernard was more of a decorator than a thrower and as he got older and his throwing became "heavier" he did less and less.

He would have painted a number of the Z bowls as well but I haven't seen any of those signed by him.

The plate above was part of the Standard Ware range but was discontinued at some point so is not as common as some items from the range.

I have seen it with 4 ramekins/egg bakers that looked similar vintage on top and think that was its original purpose. I imagine that the bread plate term was brought in to try and boost sales.

They were part of the Standard Ware range although the decoration did vary quite considerably over the years - some had copies of Hamada's brushwork. So could have been made by any of the apprentices.

In the 1975 catalogue they were priced at £2 each, so relatively expensive for the size.

It is not really correct to call this one of Janet's Bizen-style pots, as typical Bizen ware is unglazed. I know that this vase only has a little glaze but she did make unglazed wares in the Bizen style also. I say style as the type of stoneware she used was not absolutely correct and they weren't wood fired. What she produced were interesting pots and knackered kilns.

I'll dig out an image.

Here's one that I sold last year.