volcanic glaze stoneware jug

Emmanuel Cooper (1938-2012) was a highly influential potter, writer, teacher and life-long gay activist. During the 1970s he co-founded both the Gay Left Collective and also 'Ceramic Review' magazine, which he edited for forty years. He received an OBE for services to the arts in 2002. His pottery encompassed both functional and abstract artefacts, considering them both of equal importance. This jug falls somewhere between the two. Cooper has taken a conventional jug shape and flattened it to an extreme degree. The result is a vessel which, though elegantly jug-like in profile, almost disappears when viewed end-on.

The deeply-textured, uneven surface of this jug is achieved by use of a 'volcanic' glaze originally developed by pioneering modernist studio potter Lucie Rie (1902-95). Cooper, who wrote an important biography of Rie, was much inspired by her work, and frequently worked with volcanic glazes.

This jug, along with other studio ceramics, was donated to Norwich Castle's collection in 2015 by a prolific collector. He was partially-sighted with very limited colour vision. His favourite artefacts were those, like this one, which had distinctive shapes and surface textures which he could 'see' by touch.