{"product_id":"studio-pottery-cachepot-with-hand-formed-scalloped-collar-blossom-relief-body-under-butter-yellow-and-opaline-blue-glazes-incised-signature-c-1940-1980","title":"Studio Pottery Cachepot with Hand-Formed Scalloped Collar, Blossom Relief Body under Butter Yellow and Opaline Blue Glazes, Incised Signature, c. 1940–1980","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA small, round-bellied planter that flares out at the top into a wide collar, sized to sit in one hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe rim is the first thing to look at and the best thing on the piece. Running the entire way around the flared collar is a row of \u003cstrong\u003ehand-formed pads\u003c\/strong\u003e — small rounded tabs pressed one after another into an applied band of clay, each with a soft groove between it and its neighbour. Under the glaze they read like a row of cushions or a piped edge, and the glaze has pooled white in every groove so the whole rim catches light in a broken line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe body carries an allover pattern of \u003cstrong\u003efive-petal blossoms in low relief\u003c\/strong\u003e, each with a small starred centre, with round berries scattered between them. It runs unbroken around the pot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe glazing is done in two overlapping zones. The collar and the upper third are a warm semi-matte \u003cstrong\u003ebutter yellow\u003c\/strong\u003e, soft and slightly variegated. Below that the pot turns to a pale \u003cstrong\u003eopaline blue-white\u003c\/strong\u003e, and where the two meet the yellow runs down over the blue in a soft irregular line and gathers a little thicker at the edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOver the blossom relief that lower glaze does something worth the price on its own: it thins to bright white over every raised outline and stays pale blue-green in the flat fields, so the pattern draws itself in white line against blue without a brush ever touching it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe interior is glazed the same butter yellow, carrying small brown iron flecks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe foot is left as bare clay, a fine pale buff, and is \u003cstrong\u003eincised with a script signature\u003c\/strong\u003e cut into the surface before firing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is a \u003cstrong\u003ecachepot\u003c\/strong\u003e rather than a planter, and the distinction matters practically as well as historically. \u003cem\u003eCache-pot\u003c\/em\u003e is French for hide-pot: a decorative outer vessel made to conceal the plain nursery pot a plant actually grows in. It has \u003cstrong\u003eno drainage hole\u003c\/strong\u003e, which is not an omission — it is the definition of the form. Anything a Victorian conservatory or a mid-century sitting room wanted to look presentable went inside one of these.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eNow what the object tells us about who made it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe rim is hand-worked and it proves itself.\u003c\/strong\u003e No two pads in that row are quite the same size, the spacing drifts, and one or two sit at a slight angle to their neighbours. A moulded rim repeats exactly, every time, because a mould cannot do otherwise. This one was made by pressing a tool into an applied coil of clay, one press after another, all the way around, by a person who was counting on the eye rather than the die.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe glazing was done by hand in two dips.\u003c\/strong\u003e The boundary between the yellow and the blue is not level — it rises and falls around the pot and the yellow runs down over the blue in places. That is a pot held and lowered into a bucket, twice, not one sprayed to a line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnd the signature is incised, not stamped.\u003c\/strong\u003e It was cut into leather-hard clay with a fine tool, which pushed a small burr of clay up on either side of every stroke — you can see it under raking light. A factory marks its work with an impressed die or a printed backstamp, because a factory cannot afford to have somebody sign each piece. An incised signature means one maker, one pot at a time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe mark is not legible enough to read a name from, and we are not going to invent one.\u003c\/strong\u003e The piece is offered unattributed. There is no factory backstamp, no country-of-origin mark, no shape number and no date code anywhere on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe clay itself is worth a note. The small brown flecks in the interior glaze are \u003cstrong\u003eiron spots\u003c\/strong\u003e — iron naturally present in the clay body, which burns through a light glaze in the kiln and speckles it. They are a characteristic of a natural, unrefined clay rather than a fault, and they are why the yellow interior reads warm rather than flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn dating, the evidence cuts both ways and it is worth setting out honestly. In favour of real age: the unglazed foot carries brown staining worked into the bare clay, which only accumulates. Against great age: the glaze is finely crazed but \u003cstrong\u003ethe crazing has not toned\u003c\/strong\u003e — the hairlines are still pale rather than stained brown, and a crackle takes decades to darken as moisture works into the body through it. Taken together, this is a piece with decades behind it rather than a century, and a hand-signed studio pot with no factory mark cannot be pinned closer than that. The range given is \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1940–1980\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;\"\u003eCachepot — a decorative outer planter, with no drainage hole\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStudio pottery. Unattributed — the incised script signature to the foot is not legible enough to identify a maker, and no factory mark is present.\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;\"\u003eRound-bellied body drawn in to a flat unglazed foot and flaring to a wide collar finished with a row of individually hand-formed pads\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n      \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDecoration\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAllover five-petal blossom pattern with starred centres and scattered berries in low relief, running unbroken around the body\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;\"\u003eTwo hand-dipped overlapping zones — semi-matte butter yellow to the collar, upper body and interior, over pale opaline blue-white to the lower body, which thins to white across the raised blossom outlines\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;\"\u003eGlazed ceramic on a pale buff clay body with natural iron speckling\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 incised script signature cut into the unglazed foot before firing. No factory backstamp, country mark, shape number or date code.\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. 1940–1980. Dated on the hand-work, the staining at the bare foot and the untoned crazing rather than on style.\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, with one disclosure. \u003cstrong\u003eThere is a chip to the outer edge of the collar\u003c\/strong\u003e, taking a small piece from the rim band and showing the body beneath. The pot is otherwise sound — no cracks, no hairlines, no repairs — and it stands flat and true. The relief pattern is crisp and complete the whole way round, the hand-formed rim pads are all present and unbroken apart from the chipped section, and both glazes are bright with strong colour and no rubbing. \u003cstrong\u003eThe glaze carries a fine allover crazing\u003c\/strong\u003e, which is original to the firing and untoned. Expect light interior marking, brown iron flecks in the interior glaze as fired, and brown staining to the bare clay foot. 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\u003ePastel is easy to get wrong and this one is right, because the colour was made by a kiln rather than chosen off a chart. Butter yellow into opaline blue, with a white line drawing itself around every blossom where the glaze runs thin — it is soft without being sugary, and it changes depending on what light is on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe size is the useful part. It takes a four-inch nursery pot, which is the size almost everything sold as a houseplant comes in: a fern, a pothos, an African violet, a small orchid, a begonia, a pot of herbs on a kitchen sill. Drop the nursery pot straight in and the plant looks like it belongs there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt works just as well with nothing growing in it. On a desk it holds pens and scissors; on a dresser, jewellery or hairpins; in a bathroom, cotton and brushes; in a kitchen, wooden spoons; on a hall table, keys. A pot with a hand-made rim reads as an object rather than as storage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it sits with the things people already own. Yellow and pale blue is a warm-and-cool pairing that carries against white plaster, painted cabinetry, raw wood, brass and any amount of green foliage, and it will not fight whatever else is on the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eA note on care, and the first part will decide whether a plant lives. \u003cstrong\u003eDo not plant directly into this pot.\u003c\/strong\u003e There is no drainage hole, so water has nowhere to go, it collects at the bottom, and roots sitting in it rot — which is the single most common way a houseplant is killed. Keep the plant in its own nursery pot, set that inside, and lift it out to water it, letting it drain fully before it goes back. Do not be tempted by a layer of gravel in the bottom; it does not solve the problem, it only hides the water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDo not let water stand in the pot itself.\u003c\/strong\u003e The glaze is finely crazed, which means it is a network of openings into the clay body, and standing water works through it, stains the crazing from within and can leave a permanent tide line. If water gets in, tip it out and dry the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHand wash only, never a dishwasher, and do not soak it.\u003c\/strong\u003e Detergent and heat drive straight into an open crackle. Wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry immediately, and use no abrasive pad or cream cleaner, which will scratch the glaze and dull the yellow. \u003cstrong\u003eThis is a decorative and horticultural piece rather than tableware, and it should not be used for food or drink\u003c\/strong\u003e — the glaze on a studio piece of this age is of unknown composition and the crazing is open to the body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eHandle it by the belly rather than the collar. The rim is where it is already chipped, and a chipped edge is where the next loss starts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48035557638249,"sku":"VE-0686","price":110.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3941.jpg?v=1789077465","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/studio-pottery-cachepot-with-hand-formed-scalloped-collar-blossom-relief-body-under-butter-yellow-and-opaline-blue-glazes-incised-signature-c-1940-1980","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}