Leach Pottery Standard Ware Small Mug

Last updated: 13 October 2026

What Standard Ware is

Standard Ware is a range, not a single object. Bernard Leach set it up in the 1920s as the pottery's everyday tableware: a defined set of shapes, thrown repeatedly to the same specification, priced so that ordinary households could buy them. Bowls, jugs, egg cups, pourers, mugs.

The idea behind it was that a pot for daily use deserved the same attention as a pot for a gallery, and that a workshop could support itself by making the first while its potters learned. Leach Pottery still throws the range, and the apprentices and studio potters who make it are learning on the same shapes the workshop has used for a century.

So a £28 mug from this range is not a souvenir version of something serious. It is the thing itself, at the price the range was always meant to be.

The two glazes

Tenmoku is the dark one. Kettle's Yard describe it as a deep black finish breaking to red-brown where it runs thin, which is what happens on a rim or over a throwing ridge, so the shape of the pot shows in the colour. It is an iron glaze with a long history in Chinese and Japanese ceramics, and it is the glaze most associated with Leach.

Dolomite is the pale one: a creamy white that sometimes gives a hint of blue, over a band of unglazed clay at the foot. It is the quieter of the two and it shows tea staining less.

Both are £28 and both were in stock when we checked. Because they are hand thrown and reduction fired, no two come out identically, and Kettle's Yard say plainly that the mug you receive may differ from the photograph in size, colour and glaze.

Small or large

At 7.5cm tall the small mug is an espresso-to-flat-white size rather than a mug of builder's tea. Kettle's Yard file it under both names, which tells you how people actually use it. If the recipient drinks large mugs of tea, the £35 large mug is the one to buy and the £7 is not the decision.

Hand washing is recommended, and the reason given is fading over the long term rather than immediate damage. Dishwashers will not destroy it. They will dull it over years, which on a pot meant to last decades is the relevant timescale.

The pottery, and why it matters

Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada founded the Leach Pottery in St Ives in 1920. Leach was born in Hong Kong in 1887, raised partly in Japan, and came to pottery through etching. Hamada was a Japanese potter who would later be named a Living National Treasure. The workshop they built is described by the pottery itself as "considered by many to be the birthplace of British studio pottery", and the claim is a fair one: the training that ran through St Ives shaped how studio ceramics were made and taught across Britain for the rest of the century.

Leach's A Potter's Book, published in 1940, did as much as the pots. It argued for the standards of Song dynasty ceramics and Japanese folk craft against industrial tableware, and it is still in print.

The site at Higher Stennack now runs as a studio, museum and shop together, so the pots are still thrown where they always were. That is unusual enough to be the reason to buy this rather than a similar-looking mug from anywhere else.

Where to buy it

Kettle's Yard in Cambridge is the stockist here, at £28. Buying from a Kettle's Yard supports the gallery, which is a house full of exactly this argument about ordinary objects being worth attention, so the pairing makes sense beyond convenience.

The wider Standard Ware range at Kettle's Yard runs from an egg cup at £12 to a medium jug at £99, with a pourer at £18, a bowl at £22, a honey jar at £35 and a small jug at £45. Two mugs and a jug is a considered wedding present at under £110.

Buy the Standard Ware small mug, £28

Leach Pottery Standard Ware FAQs

What is Leach Standard Ware?

The Leach Pottery's everyday tableware range, set up by Bernard Leach in the 1920s as well-made pots at prices ordinary households could afford. It is still thrown at the pottery in St Ives, by studio potters and apprentices, to the same shapes.

How much is the small mug?

£28 at Kettle's Yard, in either Tenmoku or Dolomite. The large mug is £35.

What is the difference between Tenmoku and Dolomite?

Tenmoku is a deep black iron glaze that breaks to red-brown where it runs thin over the rim and the throwing lines. Dolomite is a creamy white that sometimes shows a hint of blue, over an unglazed clay foot.

Can it go in the dishwasher?

Kettle's Yard recommend hand washing to reduce the chance of long-term fading. It is stoneware, so a dishwasher will not break it, but the finish will dull over years.

Is it microwave safe?

Yes. The range is oven proof and microwave proof and is tested for food safety.

Will my mug look like the photograph?

Approximately. Each pot is thrown by hand and reduction fired, so size, colour and glaze all vary a little between pieces, and Kettle's Yard say so on the listing.

When was the Leach Pottery founded?

1920, by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, at Higher Stennack in St Ives, Cornwall. The site now runs as a studio, museum and shop.

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Prices and stock change. Everything here was checked on 6 September 2026 against the Kettle's Yard shop listing. The pottery's own account of its founding is on the Leach Pottery history page.

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