Bernard Leach and his legacy

(Leach Pottery, UK)
No figure did more for the studio potter than Bernard Leach. In the early 1800s factory work meant goods became cheap and mass produced, including pots, and they were easily and cheaply shipped on trains. This ruined the livlihood of the country potter, who supplied his neighborhood with pots. The stuff from factories varied, of course, but tastes became fancy, as the Victorians liked carefully designed, thin and light China. Naturally, most black smiths, chandlers, cobllers, coopers, bakers etc also lost their way of life.
Bernard Leach was an Englishman and artist who traveled in and worked in Japan, becoming an apprentice and later a master potter shortly after WW I. He found that the Japanese still had and respected hand made family potteries. He returned to England and opened up a pottery in Cornwall, and set out to revive craft and studio pottery in a rural setting. It was a revolution, and nearly every potter working now can thank him. He brought his eastern skills together with what had been common English pottery shapes and forms and materials. Every piece is made and finished and glazed by a potter. As low tech and old-fashioned as it gets.
Bernards' children and grandchildren still work the pottery, and many of the most famous US potters worked there as apprentices.
The Leaches revived traditions so that they could be appreciated as an art form, and pottery is more respected now in the west because of his work.