Abuja Pottery, Nigeria

Thanks sp  

Please can anyone ID this 'HA' mark ? thanks



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Thanks Naomi for your thoughts/suggestion, and the link. I will have a look : )

Naomi is correct with the Abuja Pottery connection and it looks as if it was made there (the stoneware body colour is correct).

I had written here that it was by Halima Audu, who is mentioned in the article that Naomi supplied the link to but when checking her mark I found that it was H I rather than H A so it isn't by her.

I did have a list of potter's marks at Abuja, supplied to me by Michael OBrien, who took over running the Pottery Training Centre when Cardew came back to England and I'll look that out and see if I can supply a name.

studio-pots wrote:Naomi is correct with the Abuja Pottery connection and it looks as if it was made there (the stoneware body colour is correct).

I had written here that it was by Halima Audu, who is mentioned in the article that Naomi supplied the link to but when checking her mark I found that it was H I rather than H A so it isn't by her.

I did have a list of potter's marks at Abuja, supplied to me by Michael OBrien, who took over running the Pottery Training Centre when Cardew came back to England and I'll look that out and see if I can supply a name.

Thanks SP : )

NaomiM wrote:Could there be a partial letter next to the A? HAL?

Thanks Naomi for Abuja : ) I would not have found it on my own, I now know what you mean by the glaze disc on the base.

Here's a pic with corn flour and it just looks to be HA, I had a look around for a couple of hours yester' and drawn a blank : ( on HA



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Yes please Naomi, I would really appreciate that.
Im not on face book : ( too complicated

I had a look at the information that Michael OBrien gave me and no luck I'm afraid.

The problem is that there were 3 real phases of pottery making at the Pottery Training Centre in Abuja.

The first of these was when it opened in 1952 until Cardew came back to England in 1965 and this was followed by Michael OBrien's time in charge from 1965 until 1972. It was at that point that the Generals ruling the country at the time thought that it was a good way of making money so they took it over.

I did say above that the stoneware body looked right for Abuja Pottery but not for the 1950s/early 1960s production where it was darker when I think back to items I have had in the past.

Therefore this could be the mark of a potter who worked there after the two Michaels had left. The style is typical Cardew but that was because potters trained by him remained and passed on what they had learnt.

Thanks SP, really interesting and I appreciate all your help : )

I agree about the glaze decoration but I'm not sure about Abuja. It looks too well thrown for the later period when my impression is that the quality dropped off.

Because there is no Abuja mark and only a potter's mark there is certainly a chance that it wasn't made at Abuja. However, HA must have been at Abuja or Jos at some point because of the style, decoration and glazes used. Alternatively, they could have come into contact with Michael OBrien later, as Michael continued to return to Nigeria and help locals set up potteries into the 21st century.

Going back to Naomi's question about if this was only a "part seal", there was a potter at the Training Centre from 1952 to 56 called Gwadabe Dan, who was a member of the Hausa tribe from Kano. For some reason his mark, according to Cardew, was AHKC. In 1956 he went back to his home town of Kano and potted there. Never having seen any of his work, as far as I am aware, I don't know this mark or if he used all the letters always and if he changed the order - so a possibility but I wouldn't put it any stronger than that.

I will be going to a Special PV of the Ladi Kwali exhibition at Farnham at some point (i.e. when the date's set) and will take a copy of the image of the mark with me on the off chance that someone might be there who knows.

studio-pots wrote:I will be going to a Special PV of the Ladi Kwali exhibition at Farnham at some point (i.e. when the date's set) and will take a copy of the image of the mark with me on the off chance that someone might be there who knows.

Thanks SP that's very kind : )

NaomiM wrote:Unfortunately no suggestions on FB over and above what SP has already said.

Thanks for asking for me : )

I took images of the pot to show Michael OBrien today and what he was certain about was: -

(i) It wasn't made in Nigeria and the potter wasn't Nigerian.
(ii) It is likely to have been made by someone who had been a student/apprentice with Cardew at Wenford Bridge.
(iii) It wasn't made at Wenford so probably after the potter left there.
(iv) It is a milk jug. Cardew used these to hold warm milk to have with coffee and sold them as such.

He wondered if it had been made by an American or Canadian potter, as many had come over to work with Cardew at Wenford. He recalled someone called Aaron Holst or similar but I haven't found any information regarding a potter of that name.

Thanks SP for asking Michael, all very interesting and at least I know what to use it for now : )

maybe one day the mark will turn up again with a name.

Wanted to show this off. Just picked it up and I personally think it is great. It is a covered mug by Bawa Ushafa. It carries his stamp and the stamp of the Abuja pottery in Nigeria. You can see the blending of styles in this piece of pottery, it carries bits of both the African and English tradition of pottery.  Made some time in the early 60's. I'm a fan.

Here is some blurb from pottery studio about Bawa.

[Bawa Ushafa
Bawa was the first trainee at the Abuja Pottery. He was senior potter of the ten throwers working at Abuja with Michael Cardew in the early 1960s.]

Although they did make lidded cups at Abuja they didn't make lidded mugs, as far as I am aware. Also the pouring spout suggests a lidded jug. Smaller than the hot water/hot milk pots they made so I'm not sure what use Cardew had in mind but it would have been specific.

I recently purchased this large vase and would appreciate any info about it.  Marked Abuja but with no makers mark. Found a similar style item also unsigned on the Internet but ID'd as being by Ladi Kwali, late 60s.  Can anyone give me more info?  Thanks in advance