Takeshi Yasuda, oxidised stoneware studio pottery tall pillow dish, Sansai, 1993

Size: Width handle to handle 38 cm, width of dish itself 33 cm, height to rim of dish 15.5 cm

Condition: Excellent condition, no chips cracks or restoration.  There are a few clean craze lines in the glaze as expected, and also as the dish is hand made there are areas where the glaze takes unevenly and minor imperfections and glaze dribbles

This fantastic dish is from the collection of work developed by Takeshi Yasuda in the late 1980s which he named Sansai,  due to his use of green, brown, and cream glazes that reference the three colour or sancai lead-glazed ceramics of the late 7th and early 8th century Chinese Tang dynasty.  Yasuda's creation is stoneware, fired in an electric kiln, rather than the earthenware of the Tang Dynasty.  Yasuda developed Sansai as a result of having to use an electric kiln for the first time during a residency at Cleveland Craft Centre, Middlesbrough (1984-1986).

The dish is thrown and then shaped, with an open base. The glaze is applied to cause it to pool in the centre and to run to the base as it liquefies in the kiln.

There is a label attached to the underside giving the description and date of the piece and signed by Yasuda.

Pieces like this by Yasuda are rare to find and a number of examples are shown in galleries and museums worldwide.

Takeshi Yasuda is a Japanese potter who was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1943. Yasuda trained at the Daisei-Gama Pottery in Mashiko from 1963 to 1966 and established his first studio there. His early work consisted of ash-glazed stoneware, after which he explored sancai and creamware.  Most recently Yasuda has been working with celadon-glazed porcelain.

Yasuda settled in Britain in 1973. He has taught at various art schools and universities across the United Kingdom and was Professor of Applied Arts at the University of Ulster. From 2005 until 2010, Yasuda served as Director of the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China, and then established his own studio in the Jingdezhen Sculpture Factory, turning to porcelain work in the tradition of this most famous of Chinese porcelain works.

In September 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Degree from Bath Spa University.