Jane Hamlyn Off-Centred Studio Vase – Signed Salt-Glazed Ceramic, 11cm

An elegant, museum-quality studio piece by renowned British potter Jane Hamlyn (b. 1940), this off-centred vase is a refined example of her celebrated salt-glazed ceramics. Bearing Hamlyn’s impressed seal to the base, it is an authentic, collectable work from one of the most influential contemporary ceramicists working in Britain today.

Hamlyn has worked as a full-time professional potter since 1975 and is internationally recognised for her mastery of salt-glaze – a technically demanding and inherently unpredictable firing process. Over decades of experimentation, she has pushed the boundaries of this short-history technique, revealing its rich, untapped potential in both functional and sculptural forms.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hamlyn developed a distinctive range of pots “for use and ornament”: cleverly conceived tableware and vessels with intriguing textured handles, impressed patterns, and richly coloured surfaces. Her signature palette of deep, distinctive blues, lustrous greens and orange-peel textures quickly became synonymous with her name, making her work instantly recognisable to collectors of studio pottery and fine British ceramics.

From the 2000s onwards, a new kiln and evolving artistic vision led Hamlyn away from conventional function and towards the vessel as an autonomous abstract form. This shift culminated in her celebrated series of “Empty Vessels”: slanted oval cylinders in which contrasting colours, lines and shapes are juxtaposed as abstract compositions. The present vase, with its refined off-centred profile, sits firmly within this lineage of work that blurs the boundaries between sculpture and functional object.

Hamlyn’s contribution to contemporary ceramics has been widely acknowledged. She is a widely travelled lecturer and demonstrator, an important figure in the international salt-glaze community, and her work is represented in major public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). In recognition of her outstanding services to pottery and ceramics, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2022.

Critic David Whiting has described her ceramics as:

“Superb as pieces of sculpture, satisfying in a purely aesthetic sense as one sees these pots individually and in careful groupings, with their varied spatial interactions of shape, their sensitive contrasts and unities of colour. Looking at the deep oxides and slips, variously matt and lustrous, one gets a powerful sense of how the most abstract conceptions can really excite the eye.”

This off-centred vase perfectly encapsulates those qualities. The form is subtly asymmetrical, inviting the viewer to move around it, appreciating the shifting profile and interplay of light across the salt-glazed surface. The piece functions equally well as a standalone sculptural object or as part of a carefully curated grouping of studio ceramics and contemporary art.

The vase is in good condition throughout with no apparent structural issues, making it ideal for discerning collectors of studio pottery, modern British ceramics, and design-led interiors. Its modest height of approximately 11cm allows it to sit comfortably on a mantelpiece, console, shelf or within a display cabinet, where its quiet presence and refined form reward close viewing.

This is an excellent opportunity to acquire an original, signed work by Jane Hamlyn, a potter whose influence on contemporary salt-glazed ceramics is both historic and ongoing. Pieces of this calibre, with clear provenance and in such good condition, are increasingly sought after by collectors, curators and enthusiasts of high-end studio pottery.

Please feel free to message with any enquiries or for additional images and information. Worldwide shipping can be arranged with professional packing to ensure the safe arrival of this exceptional ceramic vase.