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Could someone please give me guidance as to this pottery
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<p>[QUOTE="2manycats, post: 6615296, member: 13761"]Coiled pottery was done EVERYWHERE. </p><p><br /></p><p>Based on my years as a pottery student, this looks like a high-fired stoneware body with a lot of grog. Grog is ground-up fired clay, which acts as a tempering agent, making the clay easier for the inexperienced worker to have better results, and better for sculptural - not functional - pieces. It's the lighter freckles/spots/tiny lumps I can see on the loops and in the interior, kind of looking like sawdust. I think this is student work, with some creativity going on in the shape. Probably no earlier than the 1960s. </p><p><br /></p><p>An African potter would be ashamed to leave her coils unsmoothed and undecorated, and I don't see the form following any function, which is something my instructor always spoke of in considering traditional pottery - most shapes had a reason to be there. Further, African potters typically use terracotta or earthenware clay, much redder than the tan color of this piece, and which fires at a lower temperature. </p><p><br /></p><p>You can try a scratch test, if you have some scrap window/picture frame glass around, and you're not worried about the possibility of scuffing the piece a little - stoneware will typically scratch glass, but earthenware won't.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="2manycats, post: 6615296, member: 13761"]Coiled pottery was done EVERYWHERE. Based on my years as a pottery student, this looks like a high-fired stoneware body with a lot of grog. Grog is ground-up fired clay, which acts as a tempering agent, making the clay easier for the inexperienced worker to have better results, and better for sculptural - not functional - pieces. It's the lighter freckles/spots/tiny lumps I can see on the loops and in the interior, kind of looking like sawdust. I think this is student work, with some creativity going on in the shape. Probably no earlier than the 1960s. An African potter would be ashamed to leave her coils unsmoothed and undecorated, and I don't see the form following any function, which is something my instructor always spoke of in considering traditional pottery - most shapes had a reason to be there. Further, African potters typically use terracotta or earthenware clay, much redder than the tan color of this piece, and which fires at a lower temperature. You can try a scratch test, if you have some scrap window/picture frame glass around, and you're not worried about the possibility of scuffing the piece a little - stoneware will typically scratch glass, but earthenware won't.[/QUOTE]
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