Bernard Leach

During 1952-54 Bernard Leach went on a long tour. Lecturing in the USA and then spending a long time in Japan. He even thought of emigrating to Japan. He had an exhibition there. This clearly has a strong Japanese influence, even down the the slightly looking Mt Fuji background. I suspect this bowl has a lot more to do with him being in Japan than the Coronation or TV in St Ives.
              It might well get a substantial price if one could find a direct link to the Japanese exhibition or his stay in Japan.

My comment about the arrival of TV in St Ives was not to be taken too seriously but being an anti royalist it amused me to think that the arrival of TV might be more important than the coronation. I am not sure about the Japan connection although it could be to commemorate the massive loss of life in the great floods at that that time in Japan as the date is depicted in black but then i would have expected it to have Japanese numerals. The pic shows a similar scene from an etching.

The badly damaged leaping fish vase at Bearnes fetched £2800 plus extras equals around £4000 then restoration another £400 approx.

Thanks for that Croker. I can think of a lot more interesting pots that I could by for that!
        Once restored, always restored. It will never be a perfect pot.

But with this you would at least know it had been restored, unlike more expensive pots that might have been bought from major auction houses in the past that gave no indication that they had been restored or, indeed, some bought directly from potters themselves.

Indeed Studio. But you know what they say. Ignorance is Bliss!

It's interesting the way that collectors from different times view restoration, in the early days collectors/ connoisseurs in early Delft and slipware looked on a certain amount of damage as part of the items history but as times moved on and the Americans came into the market they insisted that items should be restored and be as new looking as possible. Most collectors of porcelain will not tolerate damage or restoration. Personally i don't find restoration or damage on a piece of modern studio pottery acceptable .

This jar with incised oak leaf pattern was one of the best pieces of Bernard Leach's work that I owned for a while.