Cotswolds Living Publications and Long Room Gallery Winchcombe

This is a fascinating book that goes far beyond the kind of short survey volume aimed at collectors. It sets out, ambitiously, to give an overview of the continuance of the slipware tradition in the West Country in the twentieth century — particularly in North Devon — and analyses the ways in which this slipware tradition inspired the work of the studio potter Michael Cardew, both when he was in statu pupilari with Bernard Leach at St Ives and subsequently at his own pottery just outside Winchcombe. There are also sections that look at Cardew's adoption of stoneware at Wenford Bridge and at Vumë Dugame and Abuja, in Ghana and Nigeria respectively. Edgeler also attempts to provide and ethical and philosophical context for Cardew's activities as a potter by drawing on the work and writings of Eric Gill and on the influence of the Frence neo-Thomist Jacques Maritain who influenced the community of Ditchling and whose Art et Scholastique was eagerly read by Cardew.

Edgeler is particularly fascinating on the Fremington Pottery. Michael's father Arthur Cardew was a great fan of Edwin Beer Fishley's work and Elizabeth and Vivian Jones argue, convincingly I think, that Arthur Cardew probably wrote the article 'A West Country Potter: Some Specimens of his Work', which appeared anonymously in The Cabinet Maker in 1909. His article was illustrated with fairly crude wood engravings, including one of a Fishley pot that loosely quotes Athenian black and red figure vases. Edgeler illustrates just such a vase by Fishley and another which is based on the Norwegian romantic nationalist 'dragon style', inspired by Viking culture. In fact these two pots underline the curious role Fishley played in North Devon. He was viewed as an 'authentic' peasant potter but the upper-middle-class visitors who visited him in the summer months also encouraged him to imitate or copy an eclectic range of historical ceramics.

This delightful and extremely useful book only frustrates in one regard. It is copiously illustrated but the captions for images are mostly inadequate. That is to say they give little idea of the provenance of these objects and where they are now. Sometimes information is provided in the text but caption consistency would have been both useful and reassuring. We can assume, I think, that a high proportion of the pots illustrated are owned by John Edgeler himself. If this is the case he has through the very act of collecting (and dealing) helped Cardew scholars enormously. For it is striking how unevenly Cardew's early work is documented. There are some fine, well-provenanced groups of his work in museum collections — for instance at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and at Stoke-on-Trent. But this book adds to our understanding of Cardew's early development and antecedents through a splendid series of images of largely unfamiliar work.

This is John Edgeler's sequel to Michael Cardew and the West Country Slipware Tradition, and takes up the story of the later ceramic career of the celebrated 'pioneer potter', from age 38 in 1939 until his death in 1983. At the heart of this slim but substantial volume is an account of Cardew's adventures in Africa, from the early 40s to the mid-60s, first in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and later—and more famously—at Abuja in Nigeria.

Taking as its point of departure the establishment of the Wenford Bridge Pottery in Cornwall - Cardew's base for the remainder of his life - Edgeler provides an insightful and lavishly illustrated narrative of the potter's tribulations, influences and stylistic evolution as he grappled with the technical, industrial and cultural challenges of functional stoneware production: experiences that would form the basis of his ground-breaking and profoundly influential makers' manual Pioneer Pottery, which was first published in 1969.

Key to Edgeler's approach is what he describes as an 'aesthetic biography' of the second half of Cardew's career, chronicling the technical and stylistic evolution of the work. In this regard, the volume is exemplary. The illustrations—especially the outstanding photography by Bob Fryer—bring to vivid life works of extraordinary sensitivity, subtlety and warmth, revealing the virtuousity and accomplishment of Cardew's ceramics. Also provided are details of production dates, clay body, glazes and decoration, building up to a detailed index to the maker's stylistic and technical evolution. Examining works in private hands as well as the extensive and well-documented Bill Ismay collection—now at the York Art Gallery and Museum—Edgeler here reveals himself as an authority on the finer points of the wares: this is augmented by a number of technical appendices. The result is an outstanding resource for the collectors, dealers and curators of Cardew's work - no suprise, perhaps, as Edgeler has played all these roles in the course of developing his connoisseurship.

Though the 'aesthetic' is attended to, the 'biography' is much more sketchy, most often serving physically (or geographically) to locate the roots of Cardew's artistic evolution. The how, when and where of these works are chronicled - but the why remains much more elusive. Original interviews and anecdotes from potters who worked with Cardew—including Alan Caiger-Smith, Marianne de Trey, Svend Bayer, Clive Bowen, Mike Dodd, Mark Hewitt and Michael O'Brien—are included, but the picture of the artist that emerges is partial and provisional at best; touching more on method than motive, on production rather than reception, particularly as it treats Cardew's time in Africa, and the sketchy account of his two decades of semi-retirement after his permenant return to Wenford in 1965.

The insightful chapter on the early years at Abuja in Nigeria, by Liz Moloney, goes some way towards providing an historical grounding for this central but controversial period. Moloney chronicles Cardew's establishment in 1952 - at the behest of the Nigerian government, with the support of the Crown Agents for the Colonies - of a centre at Abuja to 'train African labour in making methods' and to 'advise on and develop the production of various types of glazed and unglazed pottery from native clays'. Simplistic critiques of colonial munificence are rebutted by her research, with due emphasis placed on the creative contribution of the potters, who were said to be the principle beneficiaries of the didactic mission—among others Ladi Kwali and Clement Kofi Athey—but this vivid portrait most pertinently lacks the voices of significant figures. Inevitably, more questions are raised than answered.

Likewise, there is little here about the contraversy that came with Cardew's late-life celebrity: the contradictions between the ethics and the practice, most evident in the elitist and expatriate reception of his work, and the egoism of the supposedly 'selfless' pot. Nor is the work placed in the wider context of contemporary—and often antagonistic—approaches in the 60s and beyond: as if the 'Cardewan' values alluded to are either self-evident or self-sustaining.

No doubt this is unavoidable in a volume compiled by a connoisseur, rather than by a critic or historian. But if a joyous celebration of Cardew's later work is to rekindle a renewed appreciation of his work - as I believe is merited - there must be a parallel engagement with the contradictions and critical voices it provokes. Some reflection would be useful on the trenchant commentaries of Garth Clark, once a protégé of Cardew's, and author of the first biography; as would some reference to such scholarly commentaries as those in the online journal Interpreting Ceramics (vol.3, 2001). Perhaps these are forthcoming, in Tanya Harrod's much-anticipated biography. Meanwhile John Edgeler has given us ample reason - and a valuable tool - to better appreciate the superb stonewares of Cardew's later career.