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Vessel: C.47-2017

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Object information

Current Location: In storage

Maker(s)

Maker: Owen, Elspeth

Entities

Categories

Description

Pinched clay vessel, decorated with slips and burnished.

Wide bowl, hand-built by pinching, with thin, gently curved walls rising from a small rounded base to a wide open mouth., the whole not quite symmetrical. Layers of coloured slip are painted over the surface, inside and outside. The vessel has been burnished, low-fired to around 1000oc and lightly polished with beeswax.

Notes

History note: Oxford Ceramics Gallery, 29 Walton St, Oxford, from where purchased by the donors

Legal notes

Given by Nicholas and Judith Goodison through The Art Fund

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 17 cm
Height: 11 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Grantchester ⪼ Cambridgeshire ⪼ England

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (2017-11-20) by Goodison, Nicholas and Judith

Dating

21st Century, Early
Elizabeth II
Circa 2010 CE - 2017 CE

Note

Elspeth Owen (b.1938), came to ceramics after a BA in modern history at Oxford and engagement with the Women’s Movement in the 1970s. She lives in Grantchester, near Cambridge. Elspeth produces pinched pots, each from a single ball of clay, which are then finished with subtly coloured slips, burnished, fired (sometimes with smoke) and polished. Her delicate open bowls, pillows and jars explore form, texture, tactility and colour. Finely balanced on small rounded bases, their body and surface suggest natural materials, landscape or perhaps egg-shell. She describes the thin permeable walls as ‘suggesting a link between inside and outside which has ‘fluency and ease. Water can seep in and out. A breath might pass through'. She chooses not to mark her pots.

School or Style

Studio Ceramics

Components of the work

Decoration

Materials used in production

Clay

Techniques used in production

Pinching : Pinched clay, painted with slips, burnished and polished

Inscription or legends present

  • Text: E O 138
  • Location: Undersid of base
  • Method of creation: Rectangular paper label printed in black
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.47-2017
Primary reference Number: 223081
Entry form no.: 1346
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Tuesday 19 December 2017 Updated: Wednesday 15 July 2020 Last processed: Friday 16 February 2024

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) "Vessel" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/223081 Accessed: 2024-12-18 09:59:04

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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/223081 |title=Vessel |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 09:59:04|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

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