Vase
Janet Leach (1918 - 1997)
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1970
Materials
Glazed porcelain
Measurements
155 mm (Width) x 134 mm (Depth); 165 mm (H)
Place of origin
St. Ives
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 118915
Caption
Janet Darnell Leach is a major figure in British post-war studio ceramics. She was born in Texas and studied sculpture in New York City. In 1941, when the USA entered the Second World War, Leach trained as a welder in a shipyard, becoming highly skilled in this traditionally male occupation. Disillusioned with struggling to make a living as a sculptor, in 1947 Leach visited the Inwood Pottery in New York City, which was run by Leeds-born Aimee Le Prince Voorhees (1874–1951). Here she found her medium. In 1952 Leach attended a seminar at the avantgarde Black Mountain College in North Carolina. There she befriended potter Bernard Leach (1887–1979), whose groundbreaking philosophical and technical approaches had interested Janet since her time at the Inwood Pottery, and was introduced to Shōji Hamada (1894–1978). Deeply inspired by Hamada’s spontaneous approach to working with clay, in 1954 she travelled to Japan to study at his workshop in Mashiko and at the Ichino family pottery in Tamba. For Leach to throw pottery (typically the preserve of men) and travel alone challenged Japanese social convention, but these were incredibly important, formative experiences for her – she later described them as life-changing. Leach learned a different appreciation of the natural qualities of clay and traditional wood-firing techniques that would have a profound influence on the development of her own, highly individual style. Janet and Bernard travelled across Japan visiting traditional pottery villages, and married in 1956 – she would eventually agree to adopt his family name. Plans to stay in Japan did not come to pass and they returned to Britain, where Janet took over the management of the commercial Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. She managed the pottery until 1997 but built her own studio with two Japanese kick (unmechanised) wheels and an experimental wood-firing kiln so that she could continue to develop her own work. Despite her husband’s influence within the discipline and their mutual respect and admiration for Japanese ceramic tradition, Janet was resolutely independent in her practice. Working in stoneware and heavily grogged porcelain, she evolved her own making and decorating techniques to achieve a distinctive, modern potting style that seems influenced as much by abstract art as Japanese ceramic tradition. Her work is often characterised by free mark-making that captures a moment, such as the poured black glaze that flashes across the body of the pot shown here.
Summary
Wheel-thrown, flattened, grogged porcelain bottle vase, with pronounced shoulder, by Janet Leach of the Leach Pottery, St Ives, Cornwall, ca1970; covered in pale grey and diagonally applied streaks of iron glaze; impressed personal and pottery marks to basal rim.
Provenance
Introduced to the Property by Anthony Hicks
Marks and inscriptions
Basal rim: ‘JL’ and ‘SI’ marks
Makers and roles
Janet Leach (1918 - 1997), potter
References
Conroy, Rachel, Women Artists and Designers at the National Trust, 2025, pp. 240-243
