British Studio Ceramics before the Second World War

East meets West

The first twenty years of the 20th century saw the start of a move away from the highly decorative, low-fired Victorian factory pottery to less fussy, high-fired pieces produced by individual artists.   The ideas and writings of William Morris at the end of the 19th century had already encouraged the rejection of a highly mechanised and repetitive style of ceramic production.  The change in ceramic production was signalled by potters like the Martin brothers who preferred to make the pots they wanted rather than chase commercial success. 

Awareness of Chinese ceramics, particularly the simple, monochrome pieces produced in China before the beginning European trade with the East, was greatly increased by an exhibition held in 1910 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club.  The ceramics displayed here impressed many potters, who began to imitate the work they had seen and to experiment with Chinese glazes.  The status of ceramics also improved generally and art schools, including the Royal College of Art and the Camberwell School of Art and Crafts began to teach pottery. 

The real catalyst for studio ceramics in England came in 1920 when Bernard Leach set up a pottery in St Ives, Cornwall.  Leach had travelled to Japan in 1909 intending to teach the printmaking technique of etching.  Soon after his arrival he became fascinated by Japanese pottery and trained for many years under Japan’s master potter.  When he came back to England Bernard Leach was equipped with an excellent training and, perhaps more importantly, brought with him a very different attitude to looking at pots.  

The pieces produced by Bernard Leach and his friend Shoji Hamada at St Ives clearly illustrated the importance which they attached to the form and function of their work and the need to use good materials.  Their belief in the need for a potter to control the whole process of making a pot was clearly expressed in Leach’s classic work 'A Potter’s Book' (1940).

Many other potters before the Second World War were influenced by ceramics from Japan and China.  These included Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie, who conducted extensive experiments into Chinese ash-glazes, and William Staite Murray who learnt much from Shoji Hamada.   However, potters such as Michael Cardew found inspiration closer to home and explored English ceramic traditions like 17th century slipware. 

By the outbreak of the Second World War the position of studio ceramics in Britain was strong.  The work of well-known potters was accepted for show by art galleries, and their experimentation left British potters with a good knowledge of both ceramic technique and form.