Richard Batterham pottery

Richard Batterham 

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Potter Richard Batterham is generally accepted to be this country’s leading maker of domestic stoneware. Last year he celebrated his 80th birthday. After a summer of what he calls ‘reconstruction’ with a hip replacement and cataracts on both eyes, he is back in action, fulfilling a very long list of orders, many via Sladers Yard. The stock we are showing is either newly fired or selected by Richard from his personal collection of favourite pots gathered over the last thirty or so years.

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.’

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 producing some of his best work to date.  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.  This will be Richard’s fifth major selling exhibition at Sladers Yard. Between shows we try to keep a continuous stock of his beautiful pots.

To buy or enquire about a pot please phone Sladers Yard on 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk. If you hover your mouse over a pot its caption and price should appear. If you click on any of the images below they will all appear bigger with captions. Any difficulties with the technology, 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. We are happy to ship pots.

 

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

RB595 Large Fruit Dish H12 D51cm from above

RB654 Three Pint Jug Salt Glaze 22cm high £99

RB654 Three Pint Jug Salt Glaze 22cm high £99

RB662 Small Cut Jar 15 cm high £99

RB662 Small Cut Jar 15 cm high £99

RB661 Small Cut Jar 15 cm high £99

RB661 Small Cut Jar 15 cm high £99

 

 

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