Bernard Leach

Autograph Letter Signed (‘Bernard Leach’) to Reynolds Sharp. The renowned potter, regarded as the ‘father of British studio pottery’, apologises to his relative for his silence, explaining ‘I was in some doubt as to what to do because you probably do not know anything about my break up with my wife, & you may feel differently about meeting me when you do’, adding that he left St. Ives almost a year ago and that his son, David, is in charge of the pottery. Leach further remarks ‘My wife & I have been growing apart for some years & eventually I decided, as the children were all more or less grown up, that I would leave home & live with the woman I loved even if we could not marry. She is Laurie Cookes who was my assistant & secretary for some years before all this eventuated. I have kept practically all my friends but relations feel this kind of thing more acutely. I don’t know your outlook on life, but if you feel either that this kind of thing is intolerable, or at least that it makes contacts too difficult, I shall quite understand’.

Leach makes reference in the present letter to his separation from his first wife, and cousin, Muriel whom he had married in Japan in 1909.

Size: two pages, 4to (20 x 25.5 cm)

Place and date: Cubitt’s Yacht Basin, Hartington Road, Chiswick, 3rd May 1947

Condition: Good, with some age wear including a small area of paper loss to the left edge and a neat split in the fold at the right edge.