Ben Owen III - The Short List

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1 October, 10:00 AM

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Each one the only one

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The Short List

Ben Owen III

Five wood-fired vases in his family's recovered Chinese Blue glaze.

Edition5 pieces, no two alike

MadeWood-fired stoneware, Chinese Blue glaze, four-day firing

ShippingPacked by hand and shipped insured

Ben Owen

Tang Vase in Chinese Blue, 12.5"

$635.00

Ben Owen

Handled Han Vase in Chinese Blue, 11.5"

$595.00

Ben Owen

Egg Vase in Chinese Blue, 12.5"

$575.00

Ben Owen

Genie Vase in Chinese Blue

$175.00

Ben Owen

Small Aurora Egg Vase in Chinese Blue

$150.00

The glaze

The blue that was lost

The glaze on these is called Chinese Blue, and for fifty years nobody could make it.

Ben's grandfather developed it at Jugtown in the 1930s — a copper glaze that has to be fired near 2,250 degrees to do what it does. When Jugtown's founder died in 1947, his widow asked that production stop, and the formula was lost with it. Ben Owen Sr. rebuilt it from memory. His grandson still works from that recipe.

Copper at that heat is not a reliable color. It comes out red about as often as blue, and most often both at once — which is why these five run red down one side and turquoise down the other. That isn't a variation on the glaze. That is the glaze.

The kiln

Four days in the Pappagama

He fires in a four-chambered wood kiln he built himself and named the Pappagama, after the year he became a father. He learned wood-firing in Tokoname, in Japan, in 1995 — one of the oldest pottery towns there is.

A firing runs four days, and someone feeds it the whole time. Ash carries through the chambers and settles where it settles, so the pot nearest the firebox comes out nothing like the one at the back. He chooses the clay, the form and the glaze. He does not choose that.

Which is the honest reason there are five of these and not fifty.

Provenance

Who has one

His pots are held by the Smithsonian and by the Mint Museum of Craft and Design.

The Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo commissioned pieces for its own rooms, as did the Mandarin Oriental in Boston and The Umstead, in Cary. North Carolina has named him a Living Treasure.

None of this makes a vase better, but it does tell you who else went looking.

Practical

Before it ships

How will it arrive?

Packed by hand and shipped insured. If it arrives damaged, send us a photograph and we’ll replace it or make it right.

Can I send it back?

Yes — within fourteen days of delivery. These are made by hand, so expect variation in color and finish from piece to piece. That isn’t a fault; it’s the work.

What if it sells before I decide?

Then it’s gone. Each of these is the only one, and there’s no reordering — the next firing makes different pots.

Get on The Short List

Two releases a month through the holidays, then one a month. No code, nothing marked down; that isn’t what it’s for.

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Ben Owen III - The Short List

Ben Owen III

The blue that was lost

Four days in the Pappagama

Who has one

Before it ships

Get on The Short List

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114 Bull Street
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