While I was rambling around my birthplace county, Dorset, with my sister Mary, Alan took a bus up to Oxford. He always enjoys the Pitt Rivers Museum for its eclectic array of Archaeologia. In the Ashmolean Museum he photographed these two images for me. The first features work by Seth Cardew, John Maltby (I really like his sculptures. His jug here is a nice interpretation of function) and Clive Bowen. We met Clive in his Devon studio in 2005. I love his respectful take on traditional Devon slipware.

Here is another Thomas Toft platter from the late 17th century. Way to use a slip-trailer!

From our day in Stoke-on-Trent a few days later Al contributes this photo of a pottery as it was a century ago. The clay pit is right beside the factory and there go the coal-fired bottle ovens!