Vancouver, B.C. V6H 3R7
(604) 683-9623

Potters Guild of British Columbia

1359 Cartwright St., Granville Island

NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 1989

ISSN 6319 812xX

THE NEWS

From the Oregon Potters' Association October
Newsletter........

“The semi-annual Studio Potter Network is becoming
a most worthwhile and informative publication, The
recent Fall “89 issuc....includes articles on “the Great
Milwaukee Clay Stomp", “Fired Up" in Metchosin,
ome on Tax wars and Art versus Craft,... and a
beginning lst of the Studio Potter Network Bed and
Breakfast. Would you like to stay with Peter Stichbury
next time you go to New Zealand? Join the Network
Bed and Breakfast, c/o Box 70, Goffstown, NH 03045.

The Studio Potter Network sent the Potters Guild a
large number of copies of the above mentioned issue,
and they are available at no charge at the office. It is
an informative publication, even at the normal rate of
$3.50 an issue.

Kathryn Youngs’ work is featured on the cover of the
latest Contact magazine out of Alberta, and she's
written an article on the development of her work in
the same issue.

The Cartwright Gallery has announced the appoint-
ment of Lloyd Herman as Director (Consulting) and
Paul Grant as Assistant Director to plan its expansion
into new, larger quarters in downtown Vancouver, late
in 199] Herman, a consultant to the Gallery since
July, 1966, was the founding director of the National
Craft Museum of the United States, the Smithsonian
Institute's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. from
1971 to 1986. Grant, a Vancouver native, recently
retumed after three years as General Manager of the
Saskatoon Symphony.

The Cartwright Gallery is also actively seeking gifts of
significant objects from across Canada, and funds to
further develop the collection of “important artistic
works, functional or nonfunctional, by outstanding
crafts people working in Canada.” Their permanent
collection is described, in the Gallery's collection
policy statement, as “an ongoing collection of crafts of
significant artistic, cultural and historical merit. The

role of the collections is to provide a profile of the
evolution and artistic development of the contempo-
Tary craft movernent in Canada, and to improve public
and official recognition of Canadian craftspeople and
the excellence of their art.”

From an English daily, the following tidbit ts offered.
O-LEVEL POTTER IN JAIL ‘FAKED MASTERPIECES'

Vincent Mason ‘s pottery teacher at his once-a-week
classes tn jail regarded him as only a mediocre pupil.
ButMrs. Cleone Abbs was intrigued by the initials “BL”
he scratched on his work. Mason explained that the
letters stood for his alias, “Bernard Lee,

In fact, a_jury at Southwark Crown Court was told
yesterday , the vases, pots and dishes he was creating
with his new-found skill were being sold at curctiors,
inclucling Sotheby's and Christie's, as the work of the
renowned Comish potter Bernard Leach.

Mr, Alan Suckling, prosecuting, said William Board-
man, another prisoner at Featherstone jail near Wolver-
hampton, handed them to an antique dealer friendusho

regularly visited hirn.
Christie's sold a fake Leach vase for well over £1000
and a bowl for £240. ............Sotheby's accepted a

bowl as “an exceptional and unusual example” of the
master potter, but by ther. Mr. Richard Dennis, an
expert on Leach, began to suspect the authenticity of
work purchased on his behalf. ......
Back at the prison, Mrs. Abbs “just couldn't believe it"
when she learned of the experts’ opinions of Mason's
pots......
Hearing that Mason had eventually obtained only an
average pass in O level potten,, the judge commented:
‘It's impossible to satisfy examiners sometimes. [f this
work is average, I wonder what they give a distinction
for?"
Mason, 47, of Fawcett Street, Salford, denies comspir-
acy to obtain by deception between Oct. 1979 ancl Nov.
i980. Boardman, 47, has admitted the charge. The
hearing was adjourned until today.