Bottle

Classification(s):
Pottery
Date: c. 1951-1976
Dimensions:
231 × 110 mm (23.1 × 11 cm)
Medium: Porcelain
Object number: P1390A
DescriptionHand built porcelain ‘Disc’ bottle with square neck, by Janet Leach c. 1960. Produced at the Leach Pottery, St. Ives. The bottle has a grey/blue glaze, with darker patches applied to front and reverse.

The bottle is stamped to base with the Leach Pottery seal mark: an interlaced “SI” and a potters stamp: “JL” inside a triangle.

Label to front “P1390A £11 Janet Leach”.
Smaller label to front “P1390A”.
Label to base reads “Janet Leach White Disc Bottle Vase Iron Dis [sic] 535 A”.
Label to side (obscured) “AKST”, smaller labels to side “10” and “£11”.


ProvenanceThis object was originally acquired for the Inner London Education Authority’s (ILEA) ‘Circulating Design Scheme’ collection.

The collection was instigated by the London Country Council (later the Greater London Council) and the Council of Industrial Design (COID). The collection’s original purpose was concerned with the teaching and dissemination of modern, ‘good design’.

The collection was established in 1951/52 as the ‘Experiment in Design Appreciation’, later renamed the ‘Circulating Design Scheme’.

The Circulating Design Scheme lent boxed showcases to London schools. The showcases contained handling objects, material samples and interpretation on a specific subject.

COID withdrew its involvement in the Scheme in 1957. After which time, it was managed exclusively by the London County Council from 1957-1963.

After the administrative restructuring of London authorities, the Scheme was jointly managed by the Greater London Council and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) from 1963 – 1976.

The Scheme was operational until 1976 when the collections were withdrawn from circulation. ILEA was abolished in the late 1980s and the collection was donated to Camberwell College of Arts in 1989/90.

ILEA was responsible for secondary and tertiary education in the inner London boroughs, this included Camberwell.

NotesJanet Leach, an American potter, was interested in Japanese pottery. She spent two years studying under Shoji Hamada; she was the first foreign woman to study pottery in Japan. As a result her pottery is highly influenced by Japanese culture. Janet was married to renowned potter Bernard Leach, and together they ran the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall after settling in Britain in 1956.