Welsh Journals

WELSH CERAMICS IN CONTEXT, Part II. Edited by Jonathan Gray. 352pp. Published by the RISW with support from the City & County of Swansea, 2005. ISBN 0 9508517 6 1. The sixteen scholarly articles are the lecture papers from the second Welsh Ceramics conference held in Swansea in 2003. Major contributors from the UK and US include Gaye Blake Roberts, Oliver Fairclough, Leslie Grigsby, Maurice Hillis and Jonathan Gray himself. To single out contributors, however, is to mislead readers that some essays are of more significance than others. This could not be further from the truth. The range and depth of items skilfully brought together and now edited here by Jonathan Gray makes this one of the most useful and informative publications about ceramics produced in recent years. Technical information (Robert Copeland on transfer printing, M. Hillis on Welsh porcelain bodies), trade and contextual information (Leslie Grigsby on US consumption, Geoffrey Godden on London as a centre of trade and taste) is presented alongside detailed historical information about ceramic ventures in Wales and beyond (the Cambrian Pottery, Swansea ceramics, Bristol Pottery, Llanelly and Ynysmeudwy potteries) and commentary about design and artists (Tim Holdaway on design sources, Roger Edmundson on Billingsley and others, Oliver Fairclough on Swansea designs). Fascinating information about people and their careers rounds off this important book (Richard Morris on the Dillwyn Diaries, Andrew Renton on Swansea figures and their histories). The only negative point against this publication is perhaps its title. It would be easy to dismiss this as a book for the Welsh ceramics specialist, but collectors and researchers would certainly be missing one of the most informative reads of recent years. (This review is reprinted from the Northern Ceramic Society Museum News, with permission).