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Jar, red earthenware, standing on a flat, slightly concave base, the ovoid body with a near-vertical section in the middle of the side, the neck slightly tapering and with a rounded out-turned rim; decorated above the foot with parallel incised lines and round the body with brushed decoration in white slip of two broad horizontal bands above each of which is a series of abstract floral, foliage and spiral motifs, the whole covered with an amber galena glaze.

There is a short hairline crack in the rim and three intersecting hairline cracks in the lower part of the side; there are two spots on the side where impurities in the clay have 'blown' during firing; the surface is flecked with numerous yellow-orange spots, where impurities in the clay have produced variations in colour; there is a small unglazed patch above the foot, where Cardew's brush or fingers have prevented the glaze covering the body; higher up the side is another bare patch, where the jar has been in contact with another pot in the kiln during firing; on the same side, the glaze has a marked greenish 'orange peel' effect, apparently caused by a reaction between galena in the glaze and dampness in the kiln.

Pictured on the right of this image is a jar by Michael Cardew. The jar shows Cardew's growing confidence and skill in his early years as an independent potter. It is an imposing, well-proportioned form and perhaps one of the earliest large pots that he made at his pottery in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. The brushed slip decoration is experimental without being tentative or hesitant, its vigour and scale fully appropriate to a piece of this size.