The Leach Pottery. St Ives

Nice jug Dave, is it sgraffito or slip, can't quite tell?

I ignored this jug twice in a Charity shop over a week ago. The first time I picked it up and looked at the mark and thought was J and it had a small chip in the lip and left without a second thought as the chip put me off. Couple of days later I revisited the same charity shop and the jug was still there, again I ignored it without looking, that was a week ago. Today I visited again and the jug was still on the shelf so I picked it up and had a look again at the mark and it dawned on me the mark was an S crossed through with two dots for St Ives, bingo The Leach pottery.

Knowing the Leach marks so well I just can't understand how I missed this first time, anyway I didn't give a second thought I made the purchase this time, lucky it was still there and wondering if anyone looked at and thought the same thing has I did         .

Grumpy Grandad wrote:Very nice. I just saw the 'J' at first.
What is the word(s) in the impressed elongated box below the Leach stamp? Or am I seeing things?

ENGLAND

Grumpy Grandad wrote:Makes sense. I still can't see it, though, even though I now know what it says. I suppose that's the nature of impressed letters; being 3D they only look 'right' seen head-on in photos.
Still a lovely jug. I think I'd have bought it first time just because it's such a nice piece, as long as the price didn't seem excessive for a slightly damaged pot by an unidentified maker.
I'll bet you couldn't believe your luck when the penny dropped. How many more hands must have picked it up and put it down in that week?

Yes it would be nice to know how many picked up the jug over that week and half, anyway it only cost me £2.00 so it didn't break the bank.

Grumpy Grandad wrote:Two pounds!  I would definitely have bought that purely on looks.
That said, I do tend to buy pots based on how they look rather than by maker, and although I'm a bit more clued-up nowadays I dread to think how many under-priced pots by top makers I might have walked by over the years just because they didn't appeal to me.

I have done one better, end of last year I picked a small dish in a antiques shop for a pound. Their was a mark on the rim on the base but could not read the mark, anyway I liked it and paid, when I got home I ran a pencil over the mark and it had the St Ives Leach pottery mark and not only that later I found it was attributed to John Reeve a very early piece before they were allowed to marks their own wares. Later a collector offered me £100 for it, I gave in and sold it for the offered price, not a bad return.

Looks like John Reeve mark, nice piece and lucky you.

The H mark is Longlands Pottery mark. Reeve's personal mark is above it - Admin