Michael Cardew at Wenford

摘要

Talkative, abrasive, ingenuous and capable of a love 'surpassing the love of women', father was launched among his contemporaries for them to make of him what they would in 1901. His mother, who wanted daughters, withstood the baby Michael's natural affections and set him, along with his four brothers, on a life in which male company was preferred. Aged sixty-four years, he returned to Wenford Bridge Pottery having lived through a broad swathe of his life in West Africa. He was joined very respectfully by Hyme Rabbinowicz and together they made moulds for the oval dishes that are part of the Wenford Bridge production. Hyme, whose persuasive manner was incidental in helping the eldest son decide to learn the potters' skills, was one of the earlier of many students that came to Wenford who, with their youthful vitality, came to be a necessity to father for the rest of his life.There was a symbiosis at work; father's erudition was enjoyed and devoured, and in return some youthful vigour was transferred. The talk with students generated respect and tension in about equal amounts. The respect centred on father's ability and evident enjoyment of the abstruse vocabulary of the geologist and ceramist; the tension came when students, reared in the cheerful democracy of a different age, would try to prove father wrong. This, to me, appeared somewhat impolite, especially when the students were living in the teacher's house, for I was brought up in a benevolent dictatorship. During this time one of my functions as 'second in command' was to smoothe the ruffled feathers of students who had been sitting too close when father blew his fuse.