No 27: Vase or jar, mid-1930s (P.74.42)

This tall vase was made at the height of William Staite Murray's creativity, in a career cut short in 1939 at the outbreak of war when he decided to leave England for good. The vase is an ovoid jar shape, with three raised loop handles at the rim; it is thickly thrown in stoneware with a wood ash glaze over all. The large-scale, boldly-painted decoration of a spotted bird on a broken grey ground is in broad brushstrokes of matt brown-black. Hacksaw-blade marks, similar to those used by Bernard Leach, appear near the brushstrokes.