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Dark Jar
Maker: Britton, Alison
Earthenware, slab-built and painted
Large slab built vessel, rising from an elliptical base into a churn-like form with a flared neck, two small loop handles on either side and a deep pleat folded into one face. The outside of the body is partially coated with smooth buff slip, with brown slip painted over the neck and reaching to the base in three arch-like shapes. The interior is roughly painted in black-brown and grey. Bold gestural marks in black-brown and buff green are painted over the exterior and the inside of the neck. The underside is flat and unglazed.
History note: Purchased from Alison Britton, OBE, Marsden Woo Gallery, 229 Ebury Street, London, SW1W 8UT.
Purchased with the Dr John Shakeshaft Fund
Depth: 29.5 cm
Height: 57.5 cm
Width: 38 cm
Method of acquisition: Bought (2017-07-17) by Marsden Woo Gallery
21st Century, Early
Elizabeth I
Production date:
marked
AD 2015
Alison Britton (b.1948) is a leading British potter with an international reputation. She trained at the Central School of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art, where one of her tutors was Hans Coper. She has taught at the RCA for many years and is also well known as a curator, writer and lecturer. In the early 1970s, Britton played a significant part in the shift away from thrown, functional , studio ceramics towards more colourful, expressive, hand-built wares. In 1990 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to the applied arts.
Britton’s abstract, gestural mark making and painterly application of slips blurs the line between art and craft. In her own words: ‘ the improvised relationship between the painted surface and the irregular form is what continues to engage me”.
This piece was made for 'Alison Britton: Content and Form', a solo retrospective of Britton's work at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was a major piece within the group of new works made for the show. and is an excellent example of her recent work.
Decoration
Slab-building : Buff earthenware, slab-built, decorated with buff, buff-green, brown and brown- black slips and glazes.
Inscription present: handwitten signature
Accession number: C.15-2017
Primary reference Number: 221635
Entry Form Number: 1332
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Dark Jar" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/221635 Accessed: 2024-04-20 02:16:37
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/221635
|title=Dark Jar
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-20 02:16:37|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa37/C_15_2017_1_201708_adn21_dc2.jpg"
alt="Dark Jar"
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<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dark Jar</figcaption>
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Accession Number: C.4.67-1964
Accession Number: C.617 & A-1991
Accession Number: GR.4402.1923
Accession Number: C.20-1982
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