Jug

The rich red-brown glaze of this thrown jug contrasts Dan Arbeid’s early forms made in the 1960s (see 50716 and 50788), which use a cool colour palette of grey, white and blue tones. The cylindrical and relatively straight shape of the body is accompanied by a large curled handle which brings a playfulness to the form.

Arbeid is best known for his hand-built sculptural forms made during the 1960s. He rejected the approach of Bernard Leach and his followers, whose work was guided by the ceramic traditions of Chinese Sung and Tang dynasty pots. He was not alone in this departure. He was one of a group of ceramicists connected to the Central School of Arts during this period that were shifting from the Leach tradition. Others included Gordon Baldwin, Ruth Duckworth and Ian Auld.

Arbeid was a pottery technician at the Central School from 1957 to the mid-1980s and initially worked as a tailor’s cutter in London. He was introduced to ceramics in 1956 when he worked in an industrial ceramic factory in Israel. [1]

Sim Panaser, June 2020

[1] Tony Birks, Art of the Modern Potter, (London: Country Life Books, 1976), p. 157.