Chris Carter (not Bill Connor) - Cc mark

I've been told this could be a Bill Connor but the mark is incised whilst his are usually impressed and a much more refined CC - there’s zero info on him or his work online. Somebody mentioned it may be an early Chris Carter and the form and tenmoku glaze definitely seem more like his style, but I can't find any other representations of this mark, for any potter, anywhere! I've read that Chris Carter has used 3 marks over the years but can only find 2 of them, can anybody confirm one way or the other if it's his work?

The standard Yates-Owen illustrates Four Chris Carter marks. None really like this one. The 2 CC marks illustrated are much more rounded than this one. Much nearer a Typed C.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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...