The articles brought together in this edition survey a wide range of ceramic production, including early imported commercial trade ceramics from the colonial occupation in the Cape; low-fired, unglazed African utilitarian and sculptural ware; glazed pottery from practices referred to as studio pottery; as well as ceramics created outside of utilitarian circles.

The oeuvre of the Kalahari Studio (Cape Town), Drostdy Ware (a division of Grahamstown Pottery, Grahamstown) and Crescent Potteries (Krugersdorp) is investigated within the historical context of the 1950s, a watershed period that witnessed crucial developments in South African cultural and political history. This dissertation elucidates the historical development, key personnel, the ceramics, as well as relevant technical information related to the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries. This dissertation analyses the broader socio-political and ideological paradigms that framed South African art-making, as well as the international design trends that influenced the local studio ceramics sector. The establishment and demise of the South African studio ceramics industry and requests for tariff protection were considered within this context. Significant primary research was conducted into the present status of South African studio ceramics from the 1950s in the collections of our heritage institutions. Wares of all three of the studios reveal a predilection for figurative imagery, especially images of indigenous African women and iconography derived from reproductions of Southern San parietal art. Imagery of African women is considered within the framework of the native study genre in South African painting, sculpture and photography from 1800-1950 and Africana ceramics from 1910-1950. Similarly, images of San parietal art are investigated within their historical context of a growing public and academic interest in the Bushmen and a surge in publications containing reproductions of San parietal art. Some images of African women and San parietal art conform to pejorative and theoretically problematic modernist cannons of the'other', while some are subversive and undermine the dominant pictorial and ideological artistic conventions.

Since the 1960s the field of ceramic practice that developed in the wake of studio pottery has expanded to incorporate diverse uses of clay. In the same period public museums and galleries in Britain have begun to engage with contemporary ceramic works on a more sustained basis. This paper examines how they have attempted to reconcile art-oriented practice, in particular, with existing modes of categorisation through temporary exhibitions. It argues that these ventures also reconstituted the ceramic field, which, like the field of art, became increasingly dependent on context as a means of delineation. It focuses on the period from 1970, when Ceramic Review was founded, to the 2009 exhibition Possibilities and Losses, which craft theorist Glenn Adamson suggested marks a paradigm shift in ceramics. Extrapolating from Miwon Kwon’s writing on site-specificity it contends that although museums and galleries acted as the functional sites for these exhibitions the discourse around ceramics was a key site of effect.

This essay explores ceramic production in the Modern period in South Africa and Lesotho via a contemporary re-interpretation of the oeuvre of the pioneer Mosotho sculptor, Samuele Makoanyane (1909 – 1944). Research methodology includes a critical examination of images of works by Makoanyane in South African public collections, a literature survey of Modern South African and African ceramic sculptural traditions, as well as a detailed scrutiny of two key texts. The initial is a booklet by Makoanyane’s agent, C. G. Damant. The second is a report by the artist, curator, teacher and development consultant, Herbert Vladimir Meyerowitz. A critical examination of these texts and images is synthesised with my knowledge of the ceramics technology, production techniques and professional studio practices. The resultant article opens up a new framework for understanding Makoanyane’s oeuvre, and aims to engage with Modernist tropes and historiographies concerning connoisseurship via two hypotheses. Both hypotheses centre around the operation of professional workshop that (1) employed assistants and (2) used serial reproduction technology. These hypotheses open up new possibilities for understanding and re-evaluating the oeuvre of Makoanyane and other similarly neglected early Modern artists. They are a means to augmenting and enriching art, craft and design history in South Africa, and beyond.

Summary: South African studio pottery of the later twentieth century has consistently been described as ‘Anglo-Oriental’, because it was perceived to adhere to the standard forms of utilitarian wares in plain or subdued colours and decorations, as promoted by the Anglo-Oriental tradition of studio pottery. This dissertation investigates the validity of such an epithet, based on evidence that the pioneer South African studio potters and their successors were exposed to broader pottery influences, and that the oeuvres which they developed reflect what they borrowed, adapted and re-interpreted from such influences. The studio pottery careers and influences of the pioneers Esias Bosch, Hyme Rabinowitz and Bryan Haden are discussed, and the oeuvres of the second generation of studio potters are also investigated. Attention is given to both the ethics and aesthetics of their studio pottery practices. The dissertation further explores whether the era’s studio potters contributed towards the creation of a distinctive South African pottery identity. List of key terms: Anglo-Oriental tradition of studio pottery; Bryan Haden; Craft pottery; Esias Bosch; Hyme Rabinowitz; Michael Cardew; Pottery ethics and aesthetics; South African ceramics; South African studio pottery; Utilitarian pottery