A hot topic – 4000 years of ceramics

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The Pot Book

By Edmund De Waal with Claudia Clare

Basins. Bowls. Jars. Jugs. Mugs. Beakers. Pitchers. Vases. Cups. Compotes. Bottles. Pots. Human beings have made vessels for millennia. Humble or exalted, amphora or chalice, they trace every civilization and are probably the most archetypal human artefact. Surprising, then, that a book has not been devoted to surveying pots in their variety of forms, decorations, functions and cultural origins – that is, until now.

Beginning with a charming hedgehog-shaped vessel from the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos and ending with a contemporary, spherical Zulu pot, The Pot Book is a useful and eminently enjoyable look at more than 4,000 years of ceramic production. Published by Phaidon, it documents 300 vessels that were selected by author and ceramic artist Edmund de Waal. Each object is superbly photographed and presented in alphabetical order, according to artist, culture or style. A succinctly written entry accompanies each photograph, providing background information and an interpretative description of the object concerned, as well as references to related objects found on other pages.

De Waal’s eloquent introduction supplements the anthology section and indicates the criteria that guided his selections. When he refers to the ‘clarity’ and ‘poise’ of an object’s profile, evidence of the ‘movement of clay’ in a jar’s surface, and traces of the ‘violence of flames’ from the kiln, readers will begin to understand why this book was produced and how de Waal went about editing its contents. Wonderful images of potters at work, a well-stocked glossary, a comprehensive and abundantly cross-referenced index, and a list of photo credits round out its contents.

The result is a substantial, but not unwieldy book, perfectly suited to slowly thumbing through, the better to savour its contents. Artists and artisans, collectors, curators, historians and design enthusiasts will find The Pot Book engaging for any number of reasons. But this well-priced title would be an ideal holiday gift for anyone simply seeking an intelligently written, thoughtfully organized and visually rich diversion. It’s the sort of book that re-affirms the suitability of bound, printed pages to pleasure, protracted or intermittent.

De Waal will already be familiar to many readers. A scholar and author of several books on ceramic objects, his produced a 2010 memoir, The Hare with the Amber Eyes, which met with critical acclaim. De Waal is also a distinguished ceramic artist, whose work has been shown at Tate Britain and at the V&A. As a maker, he has the advantage of literal hands-on familiarity with process and with the decisions that artists make, including decisions about how processes will unfold, about whether or not to incorporate accidents into process and, of course, the decision regarding when to stop the process and call an object completed.

Understanding de Waal’s authority makes it that much easier to appreciate the works he chose for inclusion here – even when, as in the instances of Bertozzi & Casoni, and Cindy Sherman, he features artists whose use of ceramic has little or nothing to do with vessel-making (Bertozzi & Casoni) or is almost entirely incidental (Cindy Sherman). In such cases, de Waal seems intent upon scoring the point that pots can be conceptual, edgy and art-like. This seems unnecessary as the point is amply made by much more relevant examples by such contemporary artists as Marek Cecula, Neil Brownswood (although here the link to vessels is conceptual rather than literal), Jane Irish and Matsunaga Nao.

Yet the above exception only emphasizes the overall clarity and beauty of this book, and its exploration of the chronological and geographical universality of the vessel as an aesthetic object.

The Pot Book by Edmund De Waal with Claudia Clareis published by Phaidon, 2011. 320 pp., hardback 300 colour & 50 mono illus. ISBN 9780714847993