Following a period of study in Japan with the renowned potter Shoji Hamada, Bernard Leach returned to England in 1920 and founded the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, in collaboration with Hamada. Their aim was to produce affordable hand-produced ceramics: in 1946 this tankard cost seven shillings. At first these were produced as individual pieces, but as time went on and work became known to a wider public a steady demand for good small batch handmade tableware developed, of which this is an example. Production stopped after Leach’s death in 1979.

My Yard, British Council 2009