Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English
studio potter
Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...
who worked in West Africa for twenty years.
Early life
Cardew was born in
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...
, the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and
Alexandra Kitchin
Alexandra "Xie" Rhoda Kitchin (29 September 1864 – 6 April 1925) was a notable 'child-friend' and favourite photographic subject of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll).
She was the daughter of Rev. George William Kitchin (1827–1912), who ...
, the eldest daughter of
G.W.Kitchin,
[Clark, Garth, ''Michael Cardew'', London: Faber and Faber, 1976 ] the first Chancellor of Durham University. His family had a holiday home in
North Devon
North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and ...
, where Arthur Cardew collected Devon country pottery. Cardew first saw this pottery being made in the workshop of Edwin Beer Fishley at
Fremington and learned to make pottery on the wheel from Fishley's grandson, William Fishley Holland.
He gained a scholarship to read
Classics at
Exeter College, Oxford
(Let Exeter Flourish)
, old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall''
, named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter
, established =
, sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge
, rector = Sir Richard Trainor
...
. Already preoccupied with pottery, he graduated with a third class degree in 1923.
St Ives and Wenford Bridge
Cardew was the first apprentice at the
Leach Pottery,
St Ives, Cornwall, in 1923. He shared an interest in
slipware
Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...
with
Bernard Leach
Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".
Biography
Early years (Japan)
Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...
and was influenced by the pottery of
Shoji Hamada. In 1926 he left St Ives to restart the Greet Potteries at
Winchcombe
Winchcombe () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Tewkesbury in the county of Gloucestershire, England, it is 6 miles north-east of Cheltenham. The population was recorded as 4,538 in the 2011 census and estimated at 5,347 i ...
in Gloucestershire. With the help of former chief thrower Elijah Comfort and fourteen-year-old Sydney Tustin, he set about rebuilding the derelict pottery. Cardew aimed to make pottery in the seventeenth century English
slipware
Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, whi ...
tradition, functional and affordable by people with moderate incomes. After some experimentation, pottery was made with local clay and fired in a traditional bottle kiln. Charlie Tustin joined the team in 1935 followed in 1936 by
Ray Finch (potter)
Ray Finch MBE (27 November 1914 – 18 January 2012), formally Alfred Raymond Finch, was an English studio potter who worked at Winchcombe Pottery for a period spanning seventy-five years.
Biography
Early life
Finch was born in Streatham, so ...
, who bought the pottery from Cardew and worked there until he died in 2012. The pottery is now known as
Winchcombe Pottery
Winchcombe Pottery, near Winchcombe in Tewkesbury Borough, North Gloucestershire, is an England, English craft pottery founded in 1926.
Early history
There has been a pottery, with a Bottle oven, Bottle kiln, on the current site in Greet since ...
.
Cardew married the painter Mariel Russell in 1933. They had three sons,
Seth
Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. ...
(1934-2016),
Cornelius (1936–1981) and Ennis (b. 1938).

In 1939, an inheritance enabled Cardew to fulfill his dream of living and working in Cornwall.
[Cardew, M., ''A Pioneer Potter'', London, Collins, 1988 ] He bought an inn at
Wenford Bridge,
St Breward, and converted it to a pottery, where he produced
earthenware
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...
and
stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non- refractory fire clay. Whether ...
. He built the first
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
at Wenford Bridge with the help of Michael Leach, Bernard Leach's son. It was fired only a few times before the outbreak of
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
, when blackout restrictions brought work to an end. In 1950 an Australian potter, Ivan McMeekin, became a partner and ran the pottery while Cardew was in Africa. McMeekin built a downdraught kiln and produced
stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non- refractory fire clay. Whether ...
there until 1954.
Africa
Wenford Bridge did not make enough money to support Cardew and his family, and in 1942 he accepted a salaried post in the
Colonial Service
The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...
as a ceramist at
Achimota School
Achimota School ( /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school ...
, an élite school for Africans in the Gold Coast (
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
). Although Cardew's main motivation for taking the post was financial, he had become convinced (partly through his reading of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
) that there should be a closer relationship between the studio potter and industry. Following the outbreak of war, the school's supervisor of arts and crafts,
H.V.Meyerowitz
Herbert Vladimir Meyerowitz (1900 in St. Petersburg – 1945 in London) was an artist, educator and British colonial administrator in South Africa and Lesotho, and then later in the British Gold Coast colony.
Early life
Meyerowitz's father was a ...
, recommended that the pottery department should expand into a handcraft-based industry that might provide all the pottery needs of British West Africa. African colonies had hitherto depended on the export of commodities, but enemy shipping made this almost impossible. The Colonial Office adopted instead a policy developing indigenous industries and eventually accepted Meyerowitz's idea. They agreed to fund the Achimota pottery, which they intended should become profitable, and hired Cardew to build and manage it in nearby Alajo. This gave him the opportunity to apply his ideas on an industrial scale, and he went to the task with enthusiasm.
[ The pottery employed about sixty people and had large orders from the rubber industry and the army.][ However, it did not meet its production targets and was unprofitable. There was an apprentice rebellion and a huge kiln failure. Cardew admits that his enthusiasm developed into fanaticism.][ In 1945 Meyerowitz committed suicide. All these disasters led to the closure of Alajo.
In 1945 Cardew moved to Vumë on the ]River Volta
The Volta River is the main river system in the West African country of Ghana. It flows south into Ghana from the Bobo-Dioulasso highlands of Burkina Faso. The main parts of the river are the Black Volta, the White Volta, and the Red Volta. In ...
where he set up a pottery with his own resources. He chose to remain in Africa partly to erase the failure of Alajo and partly to vindicate the ideas of Meyerowitz, to whom he felt he owed a debt. He records in his autobiography his obsession to prove to the colonial administrators "that they were wrong to close down Alajo, and that a small pottery in a village would be successful in every way, provided it was allowed to develop naturally."[ He struggled with difficult clay and kiln failures for three years and later judged the Vumë pottery to have been unsuccessful, but its products are among his most highly regarded pots.
]
He returned to England in 1948 and made stoneware pottery at Wenford Bridge.
In 1951 he was appointed by the Nigerian government to the post of Pottery Officer in the Department of Commerce and Industry, during which time he built and developed a successful pottery training centre at Suleja
Suleja is a city in Niger State, Nigeria, pop. (2016) local government area, 260,240,
just north of Abuja, capital of the Suleja Emirate. It is sometimes confused with the nearby city of Abuja, due to its proximity, and the fact that it was orig ...
(then called "Abuja") in Northern Nigeria. His first western student was Peter Stichbury. Another of his western students at Abuja was Peter Dick in 1961-62. His trainees were mainly Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also ...
and Gwari
Gbagyi or Gbari (plural - Agbagyi/Agbari) is the name and the language of Gbagyi/Gbari ethnic group who are predominantly found in Central Nigeria, with a population of about 1 million people. Members of the ethnic group speak two dialects. While ...
men, but he spotted the pots of Ladi Kwali
Ladi Kwali, OON, MBE (c.1925– 12 August 1984) was a Nigerian potter, ceramicist and educator.
Ladi Kwali was born in the village of Kwali in the Gwari region of Northern Nigeria, where pottery was an indigenous occupation among women. She ...
and in 1954 she became the first woman potter at the Training Centre, soon followed by other women. As a result of Cardew's extensive contact with and admiration of African pottery, his later work shows its influence. He returned to Wenford Bridge on his retirement in 1965.
Later life
Through Cardew's contact with Ivan McMeekin, in 1968 he was invited by the University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...
to spend six months in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
of Australia introducing pottery to indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...
.[ He travelled in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, making pots, demonstrating, writing and teaching.
Cardew wrote an autobiography, ''A Pioneer Potter'',][ and ''Pioneer Pottery'', an account of pottery-making based on his experiences in Africa, which assumes that the potter will have to find and prepare his own materials and make all his tools and equipment.
Several of Cardew's former apprentices went on to become studio potters including ]Svend Bayer
Svend Bayer (born 2 January 1946 in Uganda to Danish parents) is a Danish-British studio potter described by Michael Cardew as "easily my best pupil."
Bayer grew up in Tanganyika and discovered pottery whilst studying geography and economics at ...
, Clive Bowen
Clive Bowen (born 1943 in Cardiff) is a Devon based potter whose work is included in a number of public collections.
Education and training
Bowen studied painting and etching at Cardiff College of Art from 1960–64. He then became the
appre ...
, Michael OBrien, and Danlami Aliyu.
Cardew died in Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...
.
Assessment and reputation
Bernard Leach said that Cardew was his best pupil. He has been described as "one of the finest potters of the century and one of the greatest slipware potters of all times."[Rice, Paul, ''British Studio Ceramics in the 20th Century'', London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1989] The decorative style of his slipware is usually trailed or scratched and is free and original. The stoneware he made at Vumë and Abuja is similarly well regarded.[ There are collections of his work in museums in Britain, (for example in the ]York Art Gallery
York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...
), the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
Honours
He was appointed MBE in 1964 and CBE in 1981.Supplement to The London Gazette, 13 June 1981, B8
/ref>
References
External links
Leach Pottery
Winchcombe Pottery
Collection of historic Cardew pottery
a
Stoke-on-Trent Museums
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardew, Michael
1901 births
1983 deaths
People educated at King's College School, London
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
English potters
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
African pottery
20th-century ceramists