Richard Batterham pottery

Richard Batterham 

Igniting Sight 

6 July until 8 September 2019

It is a great pleasure to announce a new exhibition of Richard Batterham’s recent work.  Acclaimed as the foremost living maker of domestic stoneware in the world, Richard is very sadly not now expecting to throw more pots. As things stand, this will be one of his last exhibitions of new work. Including over 60 pots, made by Richard and fired by him with the assistance of his son Reuben, the show comprises display pieces as fine as ever plus a good quantity of his intensely satisfying domestic ware.

The pots in the exhibition are available to view online below. Please email us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk  if you would like to buy any of the pots. Do include your phone number and we will call you back in the order you email.

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.’

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 has always worked alone doing all the processes himself from digging the clay to labelling the pots.  His pots are often referred to as being in  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 celadon blues and greens through to caramel (Manganese), 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 these are the pots we have always been delighted to show.

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 have held regular major selling exhibitions of his work.

To enquire about any of the pots below 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. 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. The pots shown below are available at 20.7.19. We will try to keep the site up to date.

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

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  RB800 Medium bottle black 40 cmh £840

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  RB800 Medium bottle black 40 cmh £840

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  RB800 Medium bottle black 40 cmh £840

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  RB801 Medium bottle square Manganese 39cm high £840

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  RB801 Medium bottle square Manganese 39cm high £840

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

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

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  RB803 Large Cut Lily Jar 34cm h £550

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  RB803 Large Cut Lily Jar 34cm h £550

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  RB804 Large Caddy pale ash 23.5cm h x 19.5cm dia £440

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  RB804 Large Caddy pale ash 23.5cm h x 19.5cm dia £440

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  RB812 Rimmed Tazza fluted Manganese 13h x 19cm dia £440

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  RB812 Rimmed Tazza fluted Manganese 13h x 19cm dia £440

RB812 Rimmed Tazza fluted Manganese 13h x 19cm dia £440