Teabowls

Matt Kelleher, USA

Wayne Clark

You do have a lovely collection there Naomi. But personally, I have never been a great fan of Teabowls, Yunomi, guinomi or whatever abstruse Japanese name one wants to use. They seem to be more of a modern construct by studio potters to extend the market.

If there wasn’t a market for them then potters wouldn’t make them. And it’s not that new. The Mingei movement led by Warren Mackenzie has been growing for decades. I think it’s filled a gap in the market as collectors move away from utilitarian forms which we just don’t need any more - jugs, butter dishes, casserole pots, cheese domes, salt pigs - and into ceramic art. If you collected a salt pig or cheese dome from every potter you’ve come across in the past 20 years you’d have a worthless collection by now. Where as studio pottery teabowls are not going out of fashion any time soon.

Jugs not used??????? Use one every day! Teabowls is just a fancy name for a small bowl! Highly useful for all sorts of wotnots! But I doubt if hardly anybody drinks out of them. Similarly with Yunomis. Most people use Mugs, Cups or glasses. Hardly anybody uses a ceramic handle less drinking container.

But how many salt pigs do you use? How many cheese domes do you have from different potters?  There are a limited number of pots types available to collect if you want a range from different potters. Only so many vases and large bowls one can find room for. Yunomis fill a vacuum.

Mashiko teabowl

Robin Dale-Thomas, Wales

A Norah Braden teabowl.

Would Norah Braden have called it a Tea Bowl?

I think that she would. I don't think that she would have used Japanese terms such as yunomi or chawan but she would be aware of Japanese shapes from her time at the Leach Pottery when, besides Hamada, Matsubayashi was around. This teabowl does have damage but was kept by Henry Rotheschild from the late 1940s, I imagine, until he sold a few personal pieces to his old Primavera customers that were invited to his home around 2000. It was sold by him as a teabowl.

John Webb

Jane Plahe

Teabowl in a subtle shade of green by Ania Perkowska