Large wheel-thrown teapot lid, pulled handle and additional bound cane handle. Feldspathic 'tenmoku' reduction glaze with an abstract decoration scratched into the underlying iron-rich laterite slip. Black breaking to rust brown on the sharper edges and throwing ridges. Impressed seal marks near the base of the handle.

This piece was produced at Michael Cardew's Nigerian Pottery Training Centre in the 1950s. Born in 1901, Cardew was educated at King’s College School and then at Oxford. Upon graduating he went on to make slip pottery under the tutelage of the renowned Bernard Leach. His wartime service in West Africa during World War II had a profound impact on him politically and he remained in West Africa until the 1960s, developing his pottery style, influencing local craft traditions and setting up local potteries. He went on to teach in Australia and North America before establishing his pottery in Cornwall.

This piece was lent to the University of Birmingham by H.A. Lidderdale in 1968 and was later acquired by bequest in 1992.

Inscriptions / Translations:  L.H. PKG (possibly Peter GBOKO, a Gbari thrower) and R.H. (Abuja)