Skip to main content

Eroded Vessel: C.743-2016

An image of Bowl

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Alternative views

Object information

Awaiting location update

Titles

Eroded Vessel

Maker(s)

Potter: Roberts, David (b.1947)

Entities

Categories

Description

Clay vessel, coil formed, treated with resists and slips, eroded and raku fired.

Large round clay vessel with wide neck, the base and lower part of the sides rounded and the upper sides flat and tipped slightly inwards. The exterior decorated with evenly spaced, irregular vertical ribs, alternately deep burnished black and rough, unglazed grey. The interior creamy white, specked with grey smoke and with regularly spaced, irregular thin vertical lines around the sides and regular concentric circles across the curved base, the surface rubbed to a shell-like finish.

Notes

History note: Purchased from the potter by Lynne Geen Drake

Legal notes

Given by Lynne Green Drake, in memory of her husband Jonathan C. Drake (1958-2003)

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 45.5 cm
Height: 21.5 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Holmfirth ⪼ West Yorkshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2016-07-11) by Drake, Lynne Green

Dating

21st Century, Early#
Elizabeth II
Production date: circa AD 2008

Note

David Roberts (b.1947) has an international reputation as a leading practitioner in raku ceramics. He became a full-time potter in 1981, following a decade as an art teacher, and now lives and works at Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. His large vessels are coil built, using a clay mix of ‘T’ material and porcelain. This is one of a series of ‘Eroded Vessels’, with evenly spaced exterior ribs formed by applying strips of latex resist and working between them with water to create the eroded channels. The irregularity of the erosion evokes the edge created by natural phenomena such as a sea tide or river current, while the interior echoes the dynamic of regularly spaced irregular lines on a shell-like finish. Roberts abandoned glazing in the in the early 1990s and creates his surface effects through smoke generated by the raku firing process, aided by slips and resists. He is widely acknowledged as responsible for introducing modern large-scale raku in Europe.

Components of the work

Decoration composed of slip

Materials used in production

clay mix 'T' material
clay mix Porcelain

Techniques used in production

Hand building : Clay mix comprising ‘T’ material and porcelain, coil formed, treated with slips and resists, eroded with water and raku fired.

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: DR
  • Location: Underside of base
  • Method of creation: Impressed
  • Type: Mark

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.743-2016
Primary reference Number: 209481
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Thursday 27 October 2016 Updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 Last processed: Monday 18 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Eroded Vessel" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/209481 Accessed: 2024-11-04 18:04:00

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/209481 |title=Eroded Vessel |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-04 18:04:00|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-209481

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa35/large_C_743_2016_1_201611_kly25_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Eroded Vessel"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Eroded Vessel</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>
    

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...