Alan Caiger-Smith Explained
Alan Caiger-Smith MBE (8 February 1930 – 21 February 2020[1]) was a British ceramicist, studio potter and writer on pottery.
Life and work
Caiger-Smith was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and read history at King's College, Cambridge (1949-1952). He trained in pottery at the Central School of Art & Design in 1954 under Dora Billington.[2]
According to Grove Art, Alan Caiger-Smith established the Aldermaston Pottery in 1955, "a cooperative workshop of about seven potters making functional domestic ware and tiles, as well as individual commissions and one-off pots. By trial and error he revived and perfected two virtually lost techniques: the use of tin glaze and painted pigments on red earthenware clay, and the firing of lustres on to tin glazes."[3] However, "virtually lost" is questionable: in his Lustre Pottery, Caiger-Smith himself covers relatively recent revivals of lustreware by William De Morgan, Vilmos Zsolnay, Clément Massier and Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian Pottery.[4] In particular his researches "reconstructed the medieval Islamic lustreware technique".[5]
He was joined at Aldermaston Pottery by a number of other potters, including Geoffrey Eastop (1921–2014).[6]
Alan Caiger-Smith's book on Tin-Glaze Pottery (1973) covers its history and much of its technique.[7] He co-translated and annotated with R.W. Lightbown a detailed contemporary description of the materials and methods of Renaissance maiolica, Cipriano Piccolpasso's I Tre Libre Dell'Arte Del Vasaio (The Three Books of the Potter’s Art) (1980). His history of lustre ware, Lustre Pottery, was published in 1985. Caiger-Smith was Chairman of the British Crafts Centre (1973–1978) and was awarded the MBE in 1988.[2] He ceased employing assistants in 1993 to concentrate on personal work and in 2006 announced his decision to sell the Aldermaston Pottery.[8]
Bibliography
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, Tin-Glaze Pottery in Europe and the Islamic World: The Tradition of 1000 Years in Maiolica, Faience and Delftware (Faber and Faber, 1973). .
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, Lustre Pottery: Technique, Tradition and Innovation in Islam and the Western World(Faber and Faber, 1985). .
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, Pottery, People and Time: A Workshop in Action (Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis, 1995). .
- Piccolpasso, Cipriano, The Three Books of the Potter's Art (I Tre Libri del Arte Vasaiao) (trans. A. Caiger-Smith and R. Lightbown) (Scolar Press, 1980). .
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, Said el Sadr 1909-1986. Potter, Painter, Sculptor, Teacher. (ACS Shalford Publications, 2010).
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, Times and Seasons (I Tempi e le Stagioni) (Published 2012 in English and Italian).
- Caiger-Smith, Alan, English Medieval Mural Paintings (Oxford University Press, 1963).
- Wettlaufer, George and Nancy Wettlaufer. “England’s Alan Caiger-Smith.” 'Ceramics Monthly' 28, no. 1 (January 1980).
- White Jane, Alan Caiger-Smith and the Legacy of Aldermaston Pottery', Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2018
See also
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Alan CAIGER-SMITH . Newbury Today . 29 February 2020.
- Book: Watson, Oliver . Studio Pottery . London . Phaidon Press . 1993 . 9780714829487.
- Web site: Caiger-Smith, Alan . Niblett . Kathy . Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online . subscription .
- Book: Caiger-Smith, Alan . Lustre Pottery . London . Faber & Faber . 1989.
- Freestone, Ian, Gaimster, David R. M. (eds), Pottery in the Making: World Ceramic Traditions, 1997, British Museum Publications, : Sheila Canby, p. 111 (quoted), Emmanuel Cooper, p. 208
- News: Geoffrey Eastop: An artist's life in pots . Newbury, Berkshire . . 44–45 . 15 January 2015 .
- Book: Caiger-Smith, Alan . Tin-Glaze Pottery in Europe and the Islamic World: The Tradition of 1000 Years in Maiolica, Faience and Delftware . . 1973 . 0571093493.
- Ceramic Review . 221 (September/October) . 2006 . 17 . [title missing].
- Web site: Atrium. 27 March 2017.
