If you have any ceramic related information that you think might be of interest to our readers please consider putting it in the newsletter! The newsletter editor would be delighted to receive contributions about:

• recent discoveries;
• calls for information / assistance with research;
• notes on interesting research you might have been
  undertaking;
• calls for papers for ceramic related conferences;
• notices of forthcoming ceramic related conferences,
  meetings and workshops;
• details of exhibitions;
• news and information about new websites relating to
  ceramics;
• anything else that relates to medieval and later
  ceramics!

The newsletter is (usually) published three times a year. Copy should be sent to the Assistant Secretary assistant.secretary@medievalpottery.org.uk. Copy is welcome at any time, but if it is time sensitive (for example, notification of a meeting) it should be received no later than the deadlines given below for each of the issues:

• 1st April for inclusion in the April newsletter
• 1st August for inclusion in the August newsletter
• 1st December for inclusion in the December edition

Content of each article should preferably not exceed about 800 words, though if you require more space it may be possible to accommodate this, please contact the assistant secretary beforehand. Pictures are particularly welcome and the more images of pots (relevant to your article!) that you can include the better!

Due to the current restrictions MPRG has postponed the 3-day conference, planned to take place at Durham University in June 2020, until 2021.

Our Constitution requires us to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) before the 31st December of each year, MPRG Council is considering holding a one-day conference and the AGM towards the end of this year and further information will be circulated in due course.

The MPRG training course due to be held 4-5 April 2020 in York was also postponed until such a time that it is possible to meet in safety.

Apologies to those of you who have not yet received a copy of Medieval Ceramics 39; the volume is mailed out by volunteers and publications are stored in a building that has been closed. The volumes will be sent out when it is possible to gain access to the building and when volunteers can work safely.

Wherever you may be stay safe and well and we all look forward to being able to meet up and discuss pottery as soon as possible.

MPRG is running a two-day training course in York on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 April 2020.

The course comprises four sessions spread over two days, with each session being devoted to a specific theme. Starting with an introduction to the pottery of York and Yorkshire delegates will be lead from basic identification of medieval and post-medieval pottery, through to more specific classifications according to fabric and form types, the selection of samples for scientific analysis and finally, reporting on their findings.

The training is open to anyone who would like to develop their knowledge of pottery and its study. We would particularly welcome those who monitor or commission pottery reports or manage pottery specialists, museum archaeologists and others who curate archaeological collections of pottery, students/junior practitioners and members of local societies and community groups.

The Group is grateful to Anne Jenner and York Archaeological Trust for offering to host the course and for making their collections of pottery available for examination.

For more information and booking details please see the attached PDF    View Fullscreen

The Guide provides a definition and nomenclature for ceramic forms made throughout the post-Roman period until the beginning of intensive industrial pottery production in the 17^thcentury, with the aim of enabling practitioners to identify vessel forms, clarify definitions in common usage and standardise the terminology used to describe and record vessel forms in pottery assessments, analyses and reports. As MPRG’s Occasional Paper 1 the Guide has been selling well and is still available to purchase but in order to increase its accessibility as a key research resource (in line with ‘A6 Making key information and resources as widely accessible as possible’ in Irving 2011 A Research Framework for Post-Roman Ceramic Studies in England MPRG Occasional Paper 6) and promote recording standards MPRG approached Historic England for a grant to produce a searchable, interactive PDF. The application was successful and work was completed in autumn 2019.

The PDF is available below.

A Study Day in Memory of the late Kenneth James Barton

19 October 2019

Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery

MPRG 2019 Conference and AGM

This year’s conference is being held jointly with the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology on 5 October at  the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED

One Thousand Years of Ceramic Innovation

9.30am  Arrive and registration 

10.00am Welcome and introduction (Jacqui Pearce and Julie Edwards)

10.15am Alexandra van Dongen: Jan van Eyck’s Syrian apothecary jar: the earliest known depiction of Arab ceramics in European art as a marker of global trade

10.45am Gareth Perry, Tom Watson, Caroline Jackson: Purposefully Purple: Understanding the technological transition from late medieval green to purple glazed Humber Wares

11.15am Coffee break and pottery viewing

11.45am Naomi Carver: Ceramic innovation in post-medieval Ulster

12.15pm Tom Wennberg: Faience production in Sweden: a part of 18th-century mercantilism during the Age of Liberty

12.45pm Discussion

1.00pm Lunch and visits to Ceramics and Glass Collection / MPRG AGM

2.15pm Patricia Ferguson: “Printing different Colours on One Plate”: Colour Printing on English Ceramics from 1756

2.45pm John Hudson: Slipware from the ground up

3.15pm Tea break

3.45pm Christopher McHugh: From Stoke to Seto: The adoption of British ceramic manufacturing techniques and styles in twentieth century Japan

4.15pm Julia Rowntree: Clay and hand skills: why do we need them?

4.45pm Discussion (Jacqui Pearce and Julie Edwards)

5.15pm Close

Conference fee: £25.  To book please contact Lorraine Mepham: l.mepham@wessexarch.co.uk or see our Facebook page for a booking form

This fund was established in 2007 to honour the enormous contribution made by John Hurst to the study of medieval and post-medieval pottery in Britain and Europe. It offers a travel grant of up to £200 each to MPRG members who need financial support to carry out their research. Grants are awarded annually and the closing date for applications is the 23rd March each year. Preference will be given to applicants whose projects help strengthen links between Britain and the rest of Europe and to students or those at the beginning of their careers.