Chris Carter

A bit more digging in a popular Facebook group suggests this is a very early Chris Carter mark when he worked at Drayton Manor. His website representatives appear to confirm it by email. Cant help but be skeptical though!

Drayton Manor mark looks different but he might have changed it. Has Chris Carter himself confirmed it? (Apologies if he’s passed away)

I'm trying to find an email address for him!

Drayton Pottery mark (with label)

There are vases by Chris Carter that have a similar decoration to ones with this mystery mark, so more likely to be by him than by Bill Connor

One does wonder what potters reactions are when they asked to identify their work from near 50 years ago.

philpot wrote:One does wonder what potters reactions are when they asked to identify their work from near 50 years ago.

Hopefully we will soon find out

OK, So it turns out Chris Carter is an absolute diamond of a man. We can put this to bed, he has emailed me:

Hi Gavin,
Thanks for the enquiry. I am still potting thanks, and that's been good in these difficult times. Hope that you are okay too.
That tenmoku pot with a trailed matt-white glaze on top is indeed one of mine, from as you suggest, my days at Drayton Manor Park. Probably around the early eighties. The impressed mark is just one of a variety of simple CC stamps I made and used during that period up to 1986.

At that time I had about 7 tenmoku glazes, all my own recipes and fired to around 1260°C. The stoneware bodies I made varied in their iron content, ( yours is quite high,) and so the variety of glazed work was considerable.

The attached picture shows the actual tool cut and adapted for that smaller, wider inside C. Not sure if I've still got the other tool, but it would have looked similar. Hope that answers your questions and good luck with your collection.

Best wishes,
Chris Carter.

What a lovely man. Generally the potters community is generally full of nice people. Nice result.

  Fantastic!

NaomiM wrote:  Fantastic!

great isn't it!

Are you the Naomi that runs the British and Irish Pottery Marks website? If so I bet this is pretty cool for you!

CityPotter wrote:

NaomiM wrote:  Fantastic!

great isn't it!

Are you the Naomi that runs the British and Irish Pottery Marks website? If so I bet this is pretty cool for you!

Yes, that’s me. :) Absolutely love getting verification of a new mark that’s not in the Marks book!  

philpot wrote:One does wonder what potters reactions are when they asked to identify their work from near 50 years ago.

I remember reading about Hamada being questioned about this and he said something along the lines that if it was a good unmarked pot in his style he would say it was his, even if he hadn't made it. Likewise if it was a poor pot and he knew he had made it, then he would deny it was his.

Phil Rogers did the same. If it was an old pot that he didn’t like he would swear blind it wasn’t his even though it had his mark on

We do have a Real problem on this site with often only seeing pieces from the early stages of potters careers. Especially when Potters have sharply changed direction.
               Chris Carter is noted and collected for his spartan vessel types in the school of Rie and Coper. The items we see on here are nothing like the work he is more famous for.

Link to his website and current works
https://www.chriscarterpottery.co.uk/recent-work/

philpot wrote:We do have a Real problem on this site with often only seeing pieces from the early stages of potters careers. Especially when Potters have sharply changed direction.
               Chris Carter is noted and collected for his spartan vessel types in the school of Rie and Coper. The items we see on here are nothing like the work he is more famous for.

Link to his website and current works
https://www.chriscarterpottery.co.uk/recent-work/

Its because we all have small pockets

His recent work is beautiful though.

I agree with you wholeheartedly city. Its just that Chris Carter is very unusual in going in a completely different direction quite late in his career. From a Leach style potter to a Coper/Rie style is a change that very few potters have made. To do it successfully is even more unusual.
I did most of my early collecting back in the 90's. Used to spend a whole Sunday starting very early going along the South Coast and taking in half a dozen Car Boots. Those were the days when you actyually find a Pleydell Bouverie at a Boot sale.

philpot wrote:I agree with you wholeheartedly city. Its just that Chris Carter is very unusual in going in a completely different direction quite late in his career. From a Leach style potter to a Coper/Rie style is a change that very few potters have made. To do it successfully is even more unusual.
I did most of my early collecting back in the 90's. Used to spend a whole Sunday starting very early going along the South Coast and taking in half a dozen Car Boots. Those were the days when you actyually find a Pleydell Bouverie at a Boot sale.

Its certainly worked out well for him when you see the value in his recent work compared with the value in his earlier work in the current market, not that its really financial of course - I get the feeling, especially after his period at Drayton Manor Park that he went from just 'making pots' to 'making art from the heart'. He found a bit of freedom within that perhaps wasn't ignited before.

And you can bring back those car boot days please! Even a decade or so ago REALLY good items could be found in charity shops too but they all seem very clued up now and do their research. Maybe post lockdown when everybody is busting to have a clear out and make a bit of extra cash there will be gems to be found at the car boots again!

You are exactly right about Chris Carter. There is a very interesting career summary book with lots of quotes by himself. At £25 its rather pricey though.
http://stenlake.co.uk/book_publishing/?page_id=131&ref=1077&section=Ceramics

As to Boot sales, we could chat about them all night! I think the main thing that as the years have gone by, we are getting away from the peak glory years of Studio Pottery. There was just much more stuff around some years ago. Equally people use Ebay a great deal more. One point, if you have any auction rooms around you, have a closer look at their online catalogues. I have noticed they are grouping a lot more ceramics together in big lots, and there is the odd bargain amongst those if you can recognise things,

 

Bought this in 2009. 25 cms tall.

I met Chris Carter - for his 70 year 70 pot retrospective exhibition at a local gallery a few years back - wonderful chap and we both write a bit of poetry too - so ended up talking about that as well as his pots.. great guy.. amazing potter too..

I think i bought 2 pots from that exhibition...

Chris Carter went up market when he had shows with the upmarket Hart Gallery, who had a posh gallery in Islington. Now defunct. From an old catalogue.

Chis Carter himself.

I think this is a candle holder but made in the form of a goblet with a fluted rim. The CC mark is similar to that of Chris Carter when he was at Drayton Manor (as seen here: https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t27623-chris-carter-not-bill-connor-cc-mark?highlight=Carter ), but I'm not sure it's similar enough.
Any thoughts?