Ovoid stoneware vase, John Wheeldon (b. 1947)

An ovoid stoneware vase with a black salt glaze lower section below a polychrome lustre glaze top section with various geometric designs.

England, 1980s

The early versions of this form were based on a Neolithic pot in the collections of Nottingham Castle Museum and this piece is an amalgamation of this Neolithic form and Roman Castor forms.

During the 1980s Wheeldon had developed a way of working that involved applying precious metal lustres to the surface of a textured black stoneware clay (or in some pieces to a translucent white porcelain). The lustres are preparations of precious metals and were applied using hand-cut rubber stamps, the designs being built area by area until the piece was finished. The pot is then fired again to develop the lustre.

The patterns were gleaned from a variety of sources, cathedrals and churches, pattern books, wallpaper - even one from a napkin in the café at Brixton Leisure centre.

This vase was made in the late 1980s at Repton School, Derbyshire where Wheeldon is still Artist in Residence, hand-thrown and fired to 1260*C in an electric kiln.

Text courtesy of John Wheeldon