Roger Michell (studio potter)

Roger Michell, British Studio Potter, outside his studio in The Algarve, Portugal

Roger Michell (1947 - 2018) was a British studio potter. He was also an artist, a book illustrator, writer and poet. Although first and foremost a potter, his deep insight, his curiosity and his singular skills enabled him to work across a range of disciplines. He was a prolific reader often reading several books a week. His mind was constantly working on future projects, he had a vivid and complex imagination which was evident in his work. ^[1] He will probably be remembered most widely for the design phenomena, the Walking Tea set, endearing and quintessentially English, tableware on legs with over-sized, Mary Jane shoes. ^[2] During the nineteen seventies and eighties thousands of these tea sets were sold, either hand made from Lustre Pottery studio or manufactured by Carltonware in Stoke-on-Trent. ^[3]

Roger Michell was born in Guildford, Surrey, the youngest son of Edna Wilkinson nee Scott, a school teacher, and Howard Norman Tobias Michell, referred to as Norman, a modernist architect and garden designer. He attended Harrow High School until he was 15 when he was apprenticed to David Eeles in Dorset. ^[4] He stayed with them as part of the family. Here Michell developed his throwing skills and observed first hand the building of a brick kiln.^[5] His first pottery experience was with the bank note engraver, Joseph Lawrence Keen, known as Lawrence, ^[6] who had a hobby pottery in the basement of his house. He took a special liking to Roger and taught him how to throw and make pots. It was then that Michell described himself as becoming 'hooked'. It was clear that he showed a very special talent before his years or his experience and he was accepted into the foundation course at Central School of Art and Design at the age of 16 (1963). He studied his degree under Gilbert Harding-Greene but frustrated by the limitations of the course, left the degree a year early in 1965, to set up his own pottery in London making tableware. Anthony Caro (Sir Anthony Caro) was Rogers landlord in St Johns wood and his massive studio was behind the pottery so when the business folded in 1966, he offered Roger a job. He spent the next year painting Caro's sculptures which he learned were 3D representations of paintings or music, set free from the canvas or the script. A year later he went to the Serpentine Gallery as a gallery assistant just after it reopened following refurbishment. Here he met many up-and-coming contemporary artists of the moment. He recalls that he "hovered on the edge of greatness but was never quite a part of it", he met Richard Branson, Mick Jagger, John Entwistle, although it is true that with the popularity of the Walking Tea set following an article in the Home section of The Telegraph by Maureen Walker, he and his partner, Danka Napiorkowska, became minor celebrities themselves, welcomed wherever they went. "These were", as Napiorkowska recalls, "exciting times."

It was at this time (1970) Michell met and subsequently married Napiorkowska, a fellow student. ^[7] whom he moved with to Yorkshire to establish a pottery in East Knapton. The work produced reflected a shared admiration of 18th century creamware and some ambitious designs were produced influencing the look and feel of nineteen seventies pottery and altering the direction of art and design for the rest of the century. It paved the way for new, young designers who were freed from modernist design constraints of the recent past. A plethora of novel designs began to gain prominence in the high street for example, the liquorice allsorts handbag plus novelty teapots emerged once again, not seen since World War II, 1945. ^[8]

Lustre Pottery was officially established 12 April 1972 ^[2] Michell threw, turned and cast one off pots which were often glazed and decorated by Napiorkowska. It was around the time that the Carltonware factory closed in 1982 that Michell moved to Cornwall with his family. Here, he set up a one man studio whilst his wife concentrated on her painting. Three years later in 1985, they were divorced. His eldest daughter, Chloe was 8 years old and his youngest, Alice was just 5.

Michell sold the family home and moved into his studio. He was producing decorative, thrown and turned earthenware items for local and London galleries where he also exhibited. He developed a line of cast tableware, instantly recognisable by their strong, classical shapes and rich cobalt blue glaze although copper and manganese were also used. They were decorated in wax relief and enamel, with humorous designs such as snorkelling dogs and swimming penguins. They were a popular tourist line however Roger also experimented with one off items such as bowls, teapots and cups. He also worked on private commissions in the manner of 18th century potteries alone or with an assistant. Among these were 3 porcelain dinner services consisting of over 100 pieces each and decorated using a particular theme - a Greek mythological dinner service, an insect theme and an astrological service. Roger made teapots, both serious and novelty, for collectors and private clients. In 1989, strapped for cash with a young family to raise, he began to lecture part-time for Falmouth University on the BA Hons Ceramics degree.^[9]

Bodmin hospital with brickwork and lettering by Michell

In 2001 Michell was commissioned by Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to become Artist in Residence for a new PFI Bodmin Hospital,^[10] He commissioned various local artists, including his former wife Napiorkowska, and designed and made the blue glazed brick wall bearing the hospital's name.^[11]

Prior to this Bristol Royal Hospital for Children commissioned Mike Hughes,^[12] poet, academic, BA Hons Ceramic degree Course Leader, Bristol University to decorate the walls of the hydrotherapy pool.^[13] Michell illustrated Hughes' poetry which in turn was transferred onto white, manufactured tiles. These formed a tiled mural which depicted various Bristolian scenes, among others, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel.^[14] Michell went on to commission art for 2 more hospitals before moving his studio to France in 2003 shortly after marrying Julia on Christmas Eve so that he could never forget their anniversary!

In France he was able to spend more time developing his ideas and revisiting old ones such as the fashion models he and Sally Tuffin Dennis Chinaworks had collaborated on in 1985.^[15] He installed a gas kiln. In 2005 he design 2 more limited edition Walking Ware teasets using porcelain rather than earthenware.^[16]. Here he found time to develop his personal work whilst also making teapots for collectors. ^[17].

Michell held his last exhibition of pots and paintings in England in 2013. Paintings in oil included several series, one of the French countryside surrounding the studio where he lived and worked, another a series of studies concerning the alteration of colour according to the light conditions, painted whilst staying on Le Point de Raz, the most Westerly point in Brittany. A year before he died he finished a long series of oil paintings of his wife Julia.

Julia and her pets, oil on canvas, 2016

He wrote and published a mystery novel, The Salt Glaze Murders ^[18] and he cut hazel from the French hedgerows to make a series of greenwood chairs.

From 2014, due to the persistence of a respiratory illness, he began to spend the winters in the Algarve in Portugal with his wife, Julia and her 4 dogs. Here he built a brick kiln to fire a series of large clay sculptures that he had begun in France. He also spent time experimenting with oils and writing his second book which is unfinished.

His work is held in most major museum collections including The V&A,^[19] Glasgow City Museum, the Norwich Castle Museum, the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Staffordshire, and the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum in London.^[18]

He died unexpectedly on the night of 11 April 2018 after a short illness .^[18]

Further reading

• Michell, Julia Walking Ware A Collector's Guide Walking Ware Publications (2007) ISBN 978-0955742903
• Cameron, Elizabeth and Lewis, Philippa, 'Potters on Pottery' Evans Brothers Ltd. (1976) ISBN 0312632800
• Street-Porter, Janet The British Teapot HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (7 Oct. 1985) ISBN 0207152659
• Johnson Junior, Allen, Michell, Roger, A Breeze in the Willows Ten Speed Press; First Edition edition (February 1 1997) ISBN 0898158931

References

External links

• Richard Parrington's interview with Roger Michell
• NEVAC Recording the Crafts