Jar
David Leach (1911 - 2005)
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1995
Materials
glazed porcelain
Measurements
83 mm (H); 105 mm (Dia)
Place of origin
Bovey Tracey
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 118922
Summary
Wheel-thrown, porcelain, lidded jar, with flattened dome lid, by David Leach of the Lowerdown Pottery, Bovey Tracey, Devon, probably made c.1995; covered in green celadon glaze and painted with fish in cobalt with iron details, unglazed rim to both jar and lid; impressed personal mark to base.
Full description
David Leach, OBE (1911-2005) was the son of famed potter Bernard Leach who is regarded as the father of British studio pottery. David very much followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a renowned potter in his own right. Bernard Leach was born in Hong Kong but grew up in England from the age of 10. In 1908 when he was 21, Bernard went to live in Japan, a formative period of his life which set his direction in life towards ceramics. It was during his time in Japan that David was born. Bernard and his family moved back to England in 1920, setting up the famous St Ives pottery with Shoji Hamada. As a result, David grew up surrounded by pottery and studio production and eventually became a formal apprentice to his father at St Ives in 1930. Although David went away to study technical pottery management in Stoke on Trent, he returned to St Ives in 1938 and took over its running. He made many technical changes which improved the finances and the sustainability of the pottery. Whereas Bernard Leach trialed the experimental but temperamental Japanese ‘climbing kiln,’ David introduced electricity, machinery and oil to fire the kiln which made it more controllable and also shortened the firing time by up to a quarter, making the pottery more profitable. Another legacy of David’s work was the introduction of the now famous Leach or Standard ware. These were regular, domestic stoneware pieces that could be ordered from the catalogue and made by hand, but so that every piece was identical. He created a small but permanent team which included Bill Marshall whose work also features in Greenway’s collection. In 1955, David left to set up his own pottery – Lowerdown, near Bovey Tracey. Here he continued to produce some standard wares and made pots in earthenware, stoneware and, increasingly from the 1960s, porcelain. This lidded pot is an example of his work in porcelain and dates to the 1990s. It shows a debt to the influence of his father Bernard – but utilises a celadon glaze (displaying his eastern influence) as well as more local cobalt decoration. The underside is impressed with his potter’s mark ‘DL’. David was a firm supporter of craft skills and education and played a supportive role in developing the Craft Potters Association as well as the nearby Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey. Of all the studio pottery collection at Greenway, David Leach is the potter most represented with all but one of the pieces dating to the 1990s and his work at the Lowerdown pottery. It is highly possible that he knew Anthony and Rosalind Hicks (who gifted Greenway to the National Trust in 2000) – perhaps they were even friends? (Alison Cooper, 2018)
Provenance
Introduced to the Property by Anthony Hicks
Credit line
Greenway National Trust Collections
Makers and roles
David Leach (1911 - 2005), potter