Richard Batterham pottery

Richard Batterham 

After Eighties 

17 November 2018 – 20 January 2019 

with Fred Cuming RA, Robin Rae RCA and Alfred Stockham RCA RWA

Potter Richard Batterham is generally accepted to be the leading living maker of domestic stoneware. We are delighted to show and sell his recent work in a new exhibition.  The new stock for the exhibition can be viewed below. Please email us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk   if you would like to enquire about a pot. Your emails will be answered in the order they arrive.

Richard Batterham at 80 has been reprinted!

Richard Batterham at 80 by Anna Powell is back in print for the exhibition at £10 plus £1.50 p&p. 36 page, 14.85 x 21 cm full colour paperback booklet.

 Written after long interviews and many conversations with Richard Batterham, and approved by him, it tells the story of his working life with advice he would want to pass on to young potters and photographs of his pots, his workshop and of Richard at work.

Born 1936, Richard Batterham became interested in pottery at a very young age at Bryanston School, where an interest in craft and design was greatly encouraged. He learnt under the guidance of Donald Potter, who was a student of Eric Gill and had also worked with Michael Cardew at Winchcombe. After National Service, Batterham worked for two years under Bernard Leach at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall.  There he and his future wife, Dinah Dunn, met Atsuya Hamada, a son of Shoji Hamada.  ‘I think we got a lot from him,’ Batterham says, ‘about how to handle clay. We were very lucky.’

Large Rim Tazza 2018  14.5 cm high x 36.5 cm diameter

In 1959 they left to set up their own pottery at Durweston outside Blandford.  In 1967 Batterham moved into a new pottery workshop in Durweston and built a four-chambered oil and wood-fired kiln.  In 1978 with the help of the French potter Thiebaut Chaque, he also built a small salt glaze kiln.

Still in the same pottery, he works alone and now has about five firings a year.  His pots are often referred to as the finest domestic stoneware in the Leach tradition, although he feels more in tune with the attitudes of Michael Cardew. His pots are made to enrich life rather than to adorn it. A superb craftsman, his colours are soft bues and greens through to caramel, browns and blacks with the nature of his glazes varying from thin and bright to thicker softer glazes. His forms are functional – simple, satisfying and beautiful. Some pots, he says, ‘call out to me that they are really good ones’ and those are the pots we show.

RB595 Large Fruit Dish H12 D51cm £1,275 

Describing his own pots, Richard Batterham refers to some of them as ’soft’ or ‘kind’, emphasising their human quality. ‘Michael Cardew used to say form was everything, and form is very important, but I tend to feel that it’s how the clay is handled that really makes a difference. I like to make something you can hold. If someone really hugs onto a pot, that’s lovely and just how it should be.’ Brushing away his own pre-eminence, he says, ‘You just get into the right frame of mind and get on with it.’

Richard Batterham’s work is in numerous museums, including the Tate and the V&A, and private collections and has been shown all over the world.  Sladers Yard is proud to hold regular major selling exhibitions of his work.

To buy or enquire about a pot – or to ask for a notification when the new stock becomes available to view online – please phone Sladers Yard on 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk.

For the pots shown below: if you click on any of the images below a larger image will appear. Any difficulties with the technology, please give us a call.  Measurements are of the widest or tallest part of the pot. Please note the difference between the diameter of the circular part of a pot and the width which will include any handles, spouts etc. Apologies that the photographs of some of the pots below, particularly the Caddies, look as if they have crusty parts on them but this is in fact some kind of reflection.  Please do ask if you see a flaw and we will explain as best we can.

We are happy to ship pots which we send uninsured but very well packed. 

If you would like to enquire about any of the pots below, please email us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk saying which pots you are interested in and we will reply in the order we receive the emails.  Many thanks.

• 

  RB595 Large Fruit Dish H12 D51cm from above £1,275

• 

  RB595 Large Fruit Dish H12 D51cm from above

• 

  RB751 Fruit Dish 11 cm high x 44.5 cm diameter £860

• 

  RB751 Fruit Dish side view 11 cm high x 44.5 cm diameter £860

• 

  RB754 Large Rim Tazza 14.5 x 36.5 cm £840

• 

  RB754 Large Rim Tazza 14.5 x 36.5 cm £840

• 

  RB760 Medium Bottle Beaten – from above 38 cm h x 18 cm dia £840

• 

  RB760 Medium Bottle Beaten – from above 38 cm h x 18 cm dia £840

• 

  RB762 Large Cut Jar 2 piece 36cm h x 21 cm dia £490

• 

  RB762 Large Cut Jar 2 piece 36cm h x 21 cm dia £490