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signing and dating pottery

updated sun 22 oct 06

 

Lili Krakowski on sat 21 oct 06


There was a fashion, when "The Unknown Craftsman" was the ideal, not to sign
pots. This has run its course.

The advantage of signing with an identifiable name is that it gives the
recipient of the pot something to refer to when another pot by same maker is
desired. One cannot really expect salesclerks to remember five years
later...Etc. And even when the pots wears a hang tag, those things get lost.

As to dates: everyone is of two minds. On the one hand if the shop/gallery
still has a pot marked 1998 it does tell a buyer it is a slow seller [!]
and the buyer might begin to doubt her own judgment and be biased against
the pot. On the other hand 2006 tells buyer the recipient (SO many pots
are sold as gifts) probably does NOT have "one of these" yet.

A suggestion: make or use a very small stamp as your date identification.
Screw heads, buttons, carved erasers from pencils--all are good stamps. Use
a different one each year, keep a record of what year the stamp stands for.
Helps your record keeping, does not give the date away.



Lili Krakowski
Be of good courage