12 Facts About Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie

Katherine Harriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie was a pioneer in modern English studio pottery, known for her wood-ash glazes.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie's parents were Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie and his wife Maria Eleanor, the daughter of Sir Edward Hulse, 5th Baronet; her paternal grandfather was Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 4th Earl of Radnor.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie was the youngest of three children growing up in a 17th-century stately home surrounded by blue-and-white and famille verte Chinese porcelain.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie died at Kilmington, Wiltshire, in January 1985 at the age of 89.

In 1924, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie was taken on by Bernard Leach at his pottery in St Ives.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie remained at the Leach Pottery for a year and learnt alongside Michael Cardew, Shoji Hamada and Tsuronosuke Matsubayashi.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie did the necessary odd jobs at the pottery whilst observing technical lectures from Matsu and was given the nickname of "Beano".

In 1925, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie started her first pottery with a wood-fired kiln in the grounds of her family estate at Coleshill, where she was joined for eight years by fellow potter Norah Braden.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie was judgmental of the aesthetic of some of her contemporaries such as Charles and Nell Vyse as too 'competently commercial' rather than evoking the appearances of 'things like pebbles and shells and birds' eggs'.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie was critical of Distributism as exemplified by The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic saying 'I met a bunch of 'em the other day.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie's pots are functional and tend to have a style similar to Bronze Age English pottery.

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie trialled a wide range of vegetable and wood ash glazes for her stoneware pottery.