Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie

Who was Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie?

Katherine Harriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie was a pioneer in modern English Studio pottery.

Born in Faringdon, then in Berkshire, to Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie and his wife Maria Eleanor, the daughter of Sir Edward Hulse, 5th Baronet, her paternal grandfather was Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 4th Earl of Radnor.

Her interest in pottery began when she visited Roger Fry at his Omega Workshops and saw examples of his work, which led to her attending the Central School of Art and Design in London to study pottery under Dora Billington.

In 1924 she was taken on by Bernard Leach at his pottery in St. Ives. She remained at the Leach Pottery for a year and learnt alongside Michael Cardew, Shoji Hamada and Tsuronosuke Matsubayashi

In 1925 she started her first pottery with a wood-fired kiln in the grounds of her family estate at Coleshill in Berkshire, where she was joined by Norah Braden. They used ash glazes, prepared from wood growing on the estate. In 1946 she moved to her second pottery at Kilmington Manor in Wiltshire where she worked until her death in 1985. At Kilmington she used first an oil fired kiln, and then an electric one.