Title: A Potter's Book
Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
Publication Date: 1965
Binding: Hard Cover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: Second Edition reprint.
Reprint of the second edition of, probably, the most influential book on English & American craft pottery of the twentieth century. xxvii, blank, 294 pages; index, figures, colour & b/w plates (four colour). Leach, born in Hong Kong, spent the first three years of his life in Japan. Later, after attending the London School of Art where he learned etching under Frank Brangwyn, he was inspired by reading Lafcadio Hearn's books to return to Japan in 1909 to teach etching. There, he joined a group intent on introducing Western art to Japan, giving popular lectures & demonstrations. Around 1911, he began to study raku & traditional Japanese pottery under the sixth Kenzan, working in the tradition of Ogata Kenzan; after mastering his craft, he returned to England in 1920 to teach pottery there, associated with the artist's colony in St. Ives, where he operated a kiln & workshop in collaboration with Hamada Shoji, later a 'Living National Treasure' in Japan. This book, first published in 1940, delineates his ideal combination of design, craft, art, & philosophy, and the use of simple, traditional materials, which influenced generations of potters & arrtists in England, America, Canada, New Zealand, India, & elsewhere, and helped define the modern studio pottery movement. Hardcover in torn jacket as pictured. Light wear to book (small marginal and light stain to the top edge), jacket chipped, with short tears at the top and bottom of the spine; mild toning to pages & page edges. Text clean.