{"product_id":"hand-thrown-studio-stoneware-mug-oatmeal-and-iron-speckled-exterior-with-turquoise-interior-impressed-potters-chop-to-the-foot-c-1970-1995","title":"Hand-Thrown Studio Stoneware Mug, Oatmeal and Iron-Speckled Exterior with Turquoise Interior, Impressed Potter's Chop to the Foot, c. 1970s","description":"  \u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA wheel-thrown stoneware mug, barrel-bodied and heavier in the hand than a factory cup, with a pulled handle that loops from just under the rim down to the swell of the belly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe outside is a warm \u003cstrong\u003eoatmeal cream\u003c\/strong\u003e, and it is not a flat colour — \u003cstrong\u003esmall dark iron specks\u003c\/strong\u003e are scattered through it, pushed up from the clay during the firing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAround the shoulder the glaze changes: a \u003cstrong\u003edark olive-brown band\u003c\/strong\u003e where two glazes meet and run together, mottled and slightly granular, breaking down over the cream in uneven fingers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside, the mug is \u003cstrong\u003eturquoise\u003c\/strong\u003e, deep and soft, with the throwing rings showing as a spiral under the glaze and the colour lifting over the rim so that it reads as a band of blue-green from the outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe foot is unglazed, cleanly trimmed, and shows the bare \u003cstrong\u003ebuff-pink stoneware body\u003c\/strong\u003e. Pressed into the centre is the potter's \u003cstrong\u003echop mark\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe chop is the reason to turn it over, and it belongs to a tradition roughly five thousand years old.\u003c\/strong\u003e Potters have marked their work since ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome — one of the oldest signed ceramics to survive is a Greek vase of about 530 BCE inscribed \u003cem\u003e“Exekias made and painted me”\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe word \u003cem\u003echop\u003c\/em\u003e comes from the Asian seal, the Japanese \u003cem\u003ehanko\u003c\/em\u003e, and that is what a studio potter's mark is: a personal stamp, cut once and pressed into the wet clay of everything they make. It goes on the foot, where it is hidden in use and found only by someone who picks the piece up — which is rather the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA chop is not a factory backstamp, and the difference matters.\u003c\/strong\u003e A backstamp names a company and exists for production records. A chop names one pair of hands, and its function is to build a traceable body of work across a career. This mug came off one person's wheel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEverything else about it agrees.\u003c\/strong\u003e The throwing rings spiral up the inside where the potter's fingers rose through the wall. The handle was \u003cem\u003epulled\u003c\/em\u003e — drawn down from a lump of clay by hand rather than cast or extruded — and it thickens and thins the way only a pulled handle does. The iron specks come from an iron-bearing stoneware body firing through its glaze, and the way the shoulder glaze breaks and runs is a wood or gas kiln behaving unpredictably, not a controlled industrial firing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe chop is clear and complete, but it is not resolved to a maker here.\u003c\/strong\u003e No name, studio, place or date appears anywhere on the piece, and it is offered \u003cstrong\u003eunattributed\u003c\/strong\u003e rather than assigned to a potter on a guess.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDated on the material and the making — reduction-fired speckled stoneware, a personal chop, and the oatmeal-and-turquoise palette of the studio pottery movement as it ran through American workshops and university programmes: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1970–1995\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eHand-thrown studio stoneware mug\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eBarrel body on a trimmed unglazed foot, with a hand-pulled handle attached below the rim and at the belly; throwing rings visible inside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGlaze\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOatmeal cream exterior with iron speckling, a mottled olive-brown break band at the shoulder where two glazes overlap, and a turquoise interior carrying up over the rim\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eIron-bearing buff stoneware, reduction fired\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAn impressed potter's chop to the unglazed foot — a personal maker's seal, not a factory backstamp. No name, studio or date. Offered unattributed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1970–1995. Dated on the reduction-fired speckled body, the personal chop and the studio-pottery glaze palette.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eGood and fully usable. The mug is sound with no cracks, no crazing and no repairs; it stands level, the rim is smooth and complete all the way round, the handle is firmly attached with no stress lines at either join, and the glazes are bright and unworn inside and out. \u003cstrong\u003eThere is one small chip to the edge of the unglazed foot\u003c\/strong\u003e, low on the base where it does not show when the mug is standing and does not affect how it sits or holds liquid. Expect the glaze to be uneven where it breaks at the shoulder, and the iron specks throughout — both are the firing, not faults. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople end up with a favourite mug whether they plan to or not, and it is almost never the one that came in a set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis one has the qualities that decide it. There is real weight to it, so it feels like something. The wall is thick, so coffee stays hot longer than it does in thin porcelain. The handle was pulled by hand to fit a hand, which is why it sits better than a cast one. And the barrel shape means it does not tip when you set it down in a hurry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colours do the rest. Oatmeal with iron flecks and a turquoise interior is a combination no factory would sign off on and no two kiln loads produce identically — you get the blue-green surprise every time you look down into it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is equally good doing something else. On a desk it takes pens and scissors; on a windowsill, a cutting of ivy; on a dresser, keys and coins. And for a gift it is unusually easy, because a handmade mug is a thing almost everybody uses and almost nobody buys for themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and with studio stoneware most of it is permission rather than prohibition. \u003cstrong\u003eIt is fine to use every day.\u003c\/strong\u003e Wash it by hand in warm water with a little mild soap, which is gentler than a dishwasher on a glaze that may have been fired to a studio's own recipe rather than a commercial standard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeep the unglazed foot out of standing water.\u003c\/strong\u003e Bare stoneware absorbs, and a mug left sitting in a wet sink or a puddled draining board will draw water up into the foot and stain it. Dry the base as well as the cup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAvoid sudden temperature changes — no going from the refrigerator to a hot oven, and let boiling water go off the boil before it goes in. Use no abrasive pad or scouring cream on the glazed surfaces, and no bleach soak, which can lift into a crazed or porous foot and stay there. Coffee and tea staining inside lifts with a paste of bicarbonate of soda and a soft cloth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48041820881001,"sku":"VE-0709","price":48.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/51B1A65C-511D-494A-BABE-4810253B454B.jpg?v=1789140285","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/hand-thrown-studio-stoneware-mug-oatmeal-and-iron-speckled-exterior-with-turquoise-interior-impressed-potters-chop-to-the-foot-c-1970-1995","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}