Harry and May Davis Ramekins. Gee where did this design come from?
Designer
|
Bernard Leach
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Maker
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Bernard Leach
|
Marks
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Stamped letter “S” struck through horizontally in
cartouche with word “ENGLAND” stamped underneath on outer edge of foot ring.
|
Material
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Tera Cotta Clay
|
Description
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Originally a lidded bowl, this an earthenware
clay bowl with flat handle angled upwards from upper third of exterior. Double band incised to exterior of
bowl. Glazed brown semi-gloss
interior
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Condition
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Very good
|
Number
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No number
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Production Date
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1930s
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Width at rim
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90mm
|
Width at Base
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55mm
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Depth
|
38mm
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Length (with handle)
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130mm
|
Weight
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172gm
|
Volume
|
125ml
|
Acquisition
|
Purchase
E-Bay
5 Nov 2013
|
Rameking Reference Number
|
BLE 001
|
I know I will get the crazies out over this one, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is
king. I tell it as I see it. As I say, I am not a potter, nor do I have
an academic interest in ceramics.
Sometimes a case of the “Emperors New Clothes” comes along. So all you purists, please take a
tranquilizer before reading on. This is
a website for functional pottery.
There is often disconnection between myth and
reality. Much of what has been written
about Bernard is an example of this.
What he was, and what his story has become are two entirely different
things. His reputation as a potter is
still better known in Japan than it is in Britain because along with Kanjiro
Kawai, Shoji Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi, in 1936, he founded the Nihon Mingei Kan
(Folkcraft) movement there. Many
references call him the “Father of Studio Pottery.” Shoji later became a Japanese “National Living Treasure”. Bernard is also called a “bridge between
cultures” and any other numbers of clichés.
So I will leave it to the sycophants tell this part of his story.
Much has been projected onto the story of a man
with a great determination who was an inspiration to a generation of potters
worldwide. He was not as widely
accepted in his day and his reputation has grown over time within the studio
pottery circle. But it is still studio
pottery. The best analogy I can draw is
one I heard a long time ago. Anyone can
build a garden shed, but only a few are capable of building a cathedral. Bernard was pretty good at his particular
type of garden shed, but it ain’t no cathedral.
What must be at the forefront of consideration is
that while Bernard was introducing this “new” style of pottery to Britain,
dozens of the great Staffordshire potteries were at their peak, producing some
of the finest pottery and porcelain ever made, anywhere in the world - ever. These exceptionally talented artisans toiled
for decades in relative anonymity, their artistic skills beyond compare, so it
is natural that Bernard’s seemingly rough and ready pottery was viewed somewhat
differently at the time. Have a look under
granny’s bed, you will probably find an exquisite, functional Staffordshire
dinner or tea set there.
He saw his mission as raising the profile in the
West of the Japanese Raku style of pottery.
Few people are blessed with knowledge of their own importance and
Bernard was one of them, always with one eye on history, he kept notes and
diaries on almost everything. Ever the
searcher, he was continually learning and searching, eventually becoming a
follower of the Bah’ai faith, for whom he is something of a poster child.
His early, disrupted and somewhat turbulent life
shaped his future and his philosophy.
Bernard Howell Leach was born in Hong Kong on the 5th of
January 1887 and moved to Kyoto Japan with his Maternal Grandparents as a baby
shortly after; his mother having died in childbirth. His father was a Judge with the Colonial administration and
remarried shortly after his first wife’s death. Bernard returned to Honkers in 1890 and had a problematic relationship
with his stepmother. When you read the
story of his life and relationships, it doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to allege that young Bernie carried some serious mummy issues.
Like many of his time, he was subject to the fear
of a nuclear holocaust, in its time, much the same as our own doomsday cult of
climate change. One of Bernard’s
friends and pupils was Harry Clemens Davis who ran the St Ives pottery in 1933
when Bernard was off on one of his many overseas trips. Harry became infected with the same phobia
and moved to New Zealand to escape the impending nuclear disaster. Harry made ramekins a lot like this
one. Well folks, Bernard and Harry are
now long gone and the nuclear annihilation didn’t happen. Make of that what you will.
St Ives Pottery 1945
The Rameking will now get on his soapbox and launch
forth on his version of climate change.
I expect to get the usual rants from the interweb. The driver of our current climate change is
the magnetosphere, that magnetic field around the earth working as a shield, deflecting
and diverting electrically charged solar particles. (You can see this happening in the aurora borealis and the
southern aurora).
This shield is not total and has been
weakening and become erratic over the past two millennia. Most recently over the last 20 years or
so. Some dingbats see this as a sign of
a polar shift. This has the effect of
allowing more solar particles in, thus increasing global temperature and
changing the ionosphere. This has
caused the jet stream to fluctuate, instead of flowing smoothly around the
globe. Maps for pilots worldwide have
already been revised so their autopilots will work. This has caused the recent increase in aberrant weather
patterns. Now, back to the task at
hand.
There are many that think because he was good at
one thing then he must be good at others.
This has never been, nor is it now a truth. Most of us, even the best, are generally only good at one
thing. Everyone, no matter who, has a
particular talent that when nurtured becomes better. Bernard is no exception.
He was good at a particular style of oriental pottery, that’s it.
His early life was marked by a distaste for
education until he discovered art.
There are many, many sites with heaps of information on his art, life,
work and travels, coupled with his relationships. I suggest you look at Wikipedia and The Baha’I websites along
with many others. I will stick to this
ramekin. It is a simple earthenware
bowl with a stem handle and too small to be of any functional use except as a
tasting bowl. Low firing heat. I got it
from E-Bay and it as early example of his work dating from the 1930s. It’s a wonder that it has survived.