A few kind people from the UK posted this excerpt from the 1965 film ‘Isaac Button: Country Potter‘, directed by John Anderson and Robert Fournier .
The last time I saw this film (and it had no soundtrack at the time) was at that wonderful Fusion clay conference in Ottawa I had mentioned a few posts ago. We were very fortunate that conference to have John Leach not only as our presenter, but for his wonderful narration of this silent film, talking about Mr Buttons and his pottery, as well as fielding questions.
Isaac Buttons was one of the last in a long tradition of country potters. It is said that he could throw a ton of clay in a day, and gauging from his systematic and efficient way of throwing (a pot in 22 seconds), and the scale of some of his pots, that is certainly not inconcievable.
I would love to have a copy of this film in its entirety to add to my collection, but I have yet to find it for sale. I’m forever hopeful that it will come up one of these days!
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 8, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Emily Murphy
I love Issac Buttons! We had a copy of this video when I was in school and we watched it over and over again. I’ve also searched for it for years and I’m so happy that it seems to have resurfaced on YouTube!
–
On another note- I went to the link that took me directly to this post (from Twitter) and there was no place to click on to comment. I went to the main page and the link appeared on the top of the post. hmmm.
January 8, 2009 at 5:08 pm
annewebb
I just tried it too and the same thing happened – no place to comment. Very strange. That twitter post btw was generated through Twitterfeed. I wonder if that has any bearing… Thanks for letting me know!
Hopefully the interest will help generate a wider distribution of the film in general. Seems to me that Steve Branfman of the Potters shop had found a British distributor a few years back but the cost was exorbitant enough that he couldn’t afford to stock it. Cheers Emily!
January 9, 2009 at 1:52 am
Undaunted
Wow, all that while smoking a pipe! He makes it look incredibly easy.
January 9, 2009 at 2:34 am
annewebb
hehe look so effortless! You should see the rest of the film!
January 14, 2009 at 3:21 am
Linda Starr
Wow, Issac is incredible. You cat and dog look so happy cuddling together. I am finally updating my blogroll and have included your site, hopefully you’ll include mine too.
January 14, 2009 at 7:44 pm
annewebb
Hi Linda! Yes, I sure will. I just posted that I’m moving my blog though.. the new address is http://www.webbpottery.com/blog. ..and just as you updated your list too! Oh well. Take care!