Mid Century Elizabeth Ann MacPhail Sculptural Cut-Out Form

Guernsey, c.1960s–70s
 
A compact sculptural form with a textured, carved base and a pierced, flared top.
The lower section is heavily worked — incised and layered with vertical and branching marks that feel almost root-like. The glaze sits in the recesses, pooling darker in places and breaking lighter across the raised texture. It’s earthy and tactile. Above, the open circular top is cut through with organic apertures — one round, others leaf-shaped — giving it a mask-like quality when viewed head-on.
 
It’s less architectural than the stacked loop pieces and more instinctive. You can see the hand in it — pressing, carving, cutting back into the clay.
 
Small, but full of movement.
 
About Elizabeth Ann MacPhail
 
Elizabeth Ann MacPhail worked at Briglin Pottery in London in the late 1950s before establishing her own studio at Grandes Rocques, Guernsey, from 1961. Her work sits within the British studio pottery tradition of the mid-20th century, combining functional forms with increasingly sculptural experimentation. Pieces from her Guernsey period were produced on a smaller scale and remain relatively scarce on the secondary market today.
 
Condition: Excellent
Size: W 5cm x H 9.5cm