Visit to David Leach's Lowerdown Pottery
Arrived at 10:45pm, "Closed" sign up and pottery board
covered over. Walked over to the bungalow, rang the bell and waited
- is David in? David eventually appeared at another door and apologised
if I had been waiting as he had not heard the bell. His hearing
aid was whistling away! We shook hands and at first he couldn't
remember me but did when I said Dr. Sanderson. He remembered Diana
and I. We walked round to his showroom and he went round the back
to open up. I said that I was on my own as Diana was teaching
and that I had brought a couple of things for him to see. I explained
Diana's City and Guilds and his Father's Barnaloft poem and he
remembered that from our previous visit.
I showed David the St. Ives Willow Tree Plate. He picked it up
and looked at the underside and saw that there was only a St.
Ives mark with no indication of the potter. He looked at the brushwork
for a while and then said that it was unlikely to be his father's
work and that it was probably made by himself or Kenneth Quick.
I enquired of its age and he thought 50 to 55 years old. As to
how many were likely to have been made, he thought around a hundred.
We chatted about the brushwork and he explained that Bernard was
the most fluent and that the light blue branches were more pronounced
on Bernard's work and had more detail. I said that I had seen
illustrations of similar designs and also one with a horizontal
wavy line across the plate. David agreed and drew some illustrations
of this onto some brown wrapping paper which he later used to
wrap the pots I bought.
We got around to talking about the Internet. David was very interested
in it but wavy of the Devon Guild advertising his pots on their
website - would he be inundated with enquiries? I explained how
the Internet works and how there are search engines that act like
indexes in books but covering all sites. Searches for "David
Leach" would return thousands of references,"David Leach
Lowerdown" less, etc. He said that his nephew showed him
pages about him and David wondered where the information had been
gathered from.
David remembered the Australian, Brendan, who we had given a
lift from Lowerdown to St. Ives in May. I said that we had exchanged
letters and that he got all his pots back to Melbourne successfully.
We walked around the showroom and David said that he had a number
of pots by an Australian who worked at Lowerdown over 40 years
ago - Russell Brooks. This guy's wife had bought him an air ticket
to the U.K. and he came back to see David and to try and get his
pots into some British galleries. David kept some for sale at
Lowerdown and moved some to other galleries.
Work for David's retrospective exhibition at the Devon Guild
in March 2003 is going well. Lots of people have been in touch
offering to lend pots. David is keen that the exhibition will
be "warts and all" to ensure that young potters get
the truth - not just the pots from a skilled, experienced master
craftsman.
David explained a recent accident in the showroom. Someone had
been round and put down a deposit on a slipware dish. The very
next day, David sat on the edge of the table where it was standing.
The table moved and a large stoneware vase fell over onto the
dish and both were smashed. When the man came back David explained
what had happened and the man was pleased to take away the pieces
for £50! David had araldited the vase back together - it
broke into twenty pieces and sold that to the man as well.
None of David's pots talked to me that day and I purchased a
couple of tea bowls with oriental flower designs, made by his
son Simon in Spain and a copy of Edmund De Waal's Bernard Leach
paperback. David said that he liked De Waal's writing style but
not his pots!
I then went back to the car to fetch Diana's sea chest box for
David to see as we had mentioned this on our previous visit back
in May. I explained Diana's City and Guilds work and how she was
inspired by Porthmeir Beach in St. Ives. David was very impressed
and intrigued with the reverse applique pebbles, I tried to explain
how it was done. He said that in his work there is an element
of the unknown when he is not in control, i.e., what happens in
the kiln. He thought that Diana was in full control throughout
her work. We chatted about the price of such a work of art - not
per hour. Diana is not known outside Malvern. David suggested
that the internet would be a good place to sell such an item to
a rich American or Japanese.
David suggested that I look at the Devon Guild Summer Exhibition
before I go home - all his pots were sold but the standard of
work throughout the exhibition was very high. I said that I still
hadn't got around to visiting his son John's pottery at Muchelney.
David said that there was a kiln opening event in September so
I said that I would try to get there. Finally, I said goodbye
and that we would drop in when we are next in the area. He said
"keep in touch".
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