[untitled]

Andrew Marshall (b. 1952) is the son of William (Bill) Marshall, who worked closely with Bernard Leach as his foreman in St Ives, 1938 – 1977, before establishing his own studio in nearby Lelant. Marshall spent a large part of his formative childhood years absorbing the life of the pottery. He met the many visiting potters from Japan and witnessed particularly the feeling and philosophy of ‘East meets West’ and the merging of the respective pottery traditions. [1]

Educated as a chemist, Marshall lived and worked in Lublin, Poland, during the early seventies. He developed a love for northern and eastern parts of Europe and their particular pottery. When he returned in the late seventies, he helped his father design and build a Japanese oil/wood-fired kiln at his studio in Lelant, near St Ives. This large twin-chambered kiln has provided a wealth of experience and variety in oriental glazes from ash to celadons, on moulded bottles, teaware, cut-sided bowls and serving dishes over the years. [2]

Marshall takes his inspiration from Bavarian Kröninger Pottery and old Korean Hakeme bowls and complements his stoneware pots with earthenware, made in the manner of German and Moravian wares. He also draws on Japanese work for his inspiration and quotes the Japanese potter Rosanjin as his most important single influence. [3]

Marshall pots mainly in red earthenware but is also known to work in stoneware and porcelain. He produces jugs, bowls, dishes, cisterns – decorated with splashed pigments over slipped clay, covered with a ‘St Erth glaze’, which he makes from scratch, using local St Erth sand mixed with other natural materials.

The potter’s mark on the base is distinctively Andrew’s, although the composition of his mark (AM) and his father’s (WM) were extremely similar.

Katharine Malcolm, June 2021

[1] https://st-ives-ceramics.co.uk/marshall-andrew/ [accessed January 5th, 2022]

[2] Ibid.

[3] http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/mp.cgi?item=321