No 13: Oval bowl, c.1955 (P.74.23)

Bowls of this type were used either for serving food or for decorative purposes. The basic form is thrown in stoneware clay and then squeezed into a gentle oval ellipse at the rim; the long sides of the oval are raised slightly higher than the ends. The bowl's surfaces are treated in two strongly contrasting colours: the inner one coated in a smooth white tin glaze, heavily speckled with spots of manganese, the outer glazed in manganese pigment through which bold sgraffito lines radiate upwards from foot to rim.