background.. potter's marks
Many potters have a special symbol which is pressed into the bottom of the pot. It's a bit like the painter's seal on a Chinese or Japanese picture - it's part of the composition while also being a signature.
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Traditional china also has these marks - Meissen's crossed swords or Chelsea's golden anchor - as well as sometimes decorator's initials and pattern numbers.
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I've never marked my bowls, as the glaze covers the whole upper and lower surface - the mark would not be seen. Lately, though, while making pots to test glazes for Edmund, I started to mark them with an old saw, on the side, like Edmund does, to check how the glaze pooled. I realized this mark was redolent of Conwy Castle, which loomed over me as a child, so have adopted it for some straight-sided pots.
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