124. Tom Scull, Shino-glazed plate

124. Tom Scull, Shino-glazed plate

For Scull, see item 123.

Light gray clay, Shino glaze, with added decoration in black glaze; bottom left unglazed. Weight: 718 g (1.6. lb). Rim diameter: 24 cm (9-1/2 in); ring foot diameter: 20.7 cm (8-1/4 in). Height: 2 cm (3/4 in).

This sits directly on the base of the foot ring; the interior of the base is quite shallow, less than an eighth of an inch deep. The artist’s name, “T T Scull,” is incised into the base of the plate. The walls rise outward in a straight line to the rim. The rim was hollowed out in a concave shape, creating two parallel ridges around the circumference of the plate. At four places the rim was turned inward. At the center of each of these spots, a circular seal was impressed into the clay, flattening it and forcing it down against the upper surface of the plate. The seal contains a leaf(?) shape within a circle. The upper surface is smooth as is the upper half of the side walls. The unglazed bottom of the plate was smoothed but it still has the rough texture of unglazed clay.

The upper surface and the upper half of the exterior walls have a Shino glaze, which largely turned red during the gas firing. Decorations were added in black and Shino, chiefly straight and curved lines and irregular blotches. There are only occasional, small bits of white. The lower half of the exterior walls are a dark brown, possibly from a slip.

Purchased from Canton Clay Works, June 2021.