Harry Davis (potter)

Harry Clemens Davis (20 November 1910 – 7 July 1986) was a Welsh-born New Zealand potter, and husband of May Davis.

Davis was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1910, the only child of a Swiss mother and English father. He was educated in Switzerland and England, and was fluent in German. After school he was sent to the Bournemouth School of Art where the pottery class was oversubscribed. Undaunted, he worked in the pottery room after hours, turning out large numbers of enormous pots which drew the attention of the headmaster. He was sent to Broadstone Potters, near Poole, which had been established in 1928 by Lancelot Cayley Shadwell and Mary Longbottom. Initially, he worked as a decorator, responsible for the "Joyous Pottery" range, but soon showed interest in all aspects of the craft. He came under the tutelage of a certain Mr. Bean who instructed him in the skills needed at a potter's wheel.

With the demise of Broadstone Potters in 1933, he applied for a job with the studio potter, Bernard Leach, and ended up working for him and David Leach at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall. Davis acknowledged the invaluable experience he gained from Bernard Leach, especially for the honing of his aesthetic appreciation of ceramics. During this period he spent long hours in London museums, making copious notes and drawings of pots he found interesting.

He left St Ives in 1937 to become Head of the Art School at Achimota College on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Here he examined the feasibility of manufacturing tiles, bricks and pots. In London in 1938 he married May Davis, whom he had met at Leach Pottery, and she accompanied him on his return to Africa. The outbreak of World War II found May stuck in England and Harry in Africa. He remained until 1942, managing to find local sources of clay and glazes. Davis recommended that Michael Cardew succeed him.

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