Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie

Katherine (sometimes known as Katharine) Harriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie (7 June 1895 – 1985) was a pioneer in modern English studio pottery, known for her wood-ash glazes. Biography Pleydell-Bouverie was born into an aristocratic family at the Coleshill estate near Faringdon, then in Berkshire. Her parents were Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie and his wife Maria Eleanor, the daughter of Sir Edward Hulse, 5th Baronet; her paternal grandfather was Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 4th Earl of Radnor. Pleydell-Bouverie was the youngest of three children growing up in a 17th-century stately home surrounded by blue-and-white and famille verte Chinese porcelain. It was during childhood holidays playing on a muddy beach at Weston-super-Mare with her siblings that she was first introduced to clay. She died at Kilmington, Wiltshire, in January 1985 at the age of 89. Career Whilst living in London in the 1920s, her interest in pottery began when she visited Roger Fry at his Omega Workshops and saw examples of his work, which led to her attending evening classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London to study pottery under Dora Billington.