Richard Batterham (1936-2021) was one of the finest potters to have trained with Bernard Leach in St Ives, but his work has a quiet modernity of its own, distinct from the more Oriental overtones of many in the Leach school. Restrained and economic in form and surface marking, Batterham’s work concentrated on understated but rich glazing on shapes so refined over the years that his ash and iron glazed jugs, large dishes, bowls and lidded jars have become some of the hallmark pots of the last fifty years, instantly recognisable. After Leaving St Ives, Batterham established a pottery at Durweston in Dorset, where he remained for the rest of his life. Here he produced work, which in its understatement and coloration, has a distinct Englishness that appears to emanate, as much as anything else, from our cycle of seasons and the landscape.
David Whiting