Ahead of the opening of Hans Coper: Resurface at The Arc, Winchester, filmmaker Abbe Fletcher, a previous HCT volunteer, takes us through artist Hans Coper’s life and her engagement with our very own Coper Spade Form. Fletcher, amongst many others, has been a part of the ongoing ceramics redevelopment activities at the Allen Gallery. In this article, she outlines how the pot, soon to be exhibited, came to be in the Trust's collection and expounds upon her volunteering experience.
Please scroll to the end of the article to play the film by Abbe Fletcher.
Hans Coper’s Spade Form vase is an arresting piece, it's part of the Allen Gallery ceramics collection and currently held at Chilcomb. It's a sculptural work and instantly recognisable as one of a series of spade-shaped vases Coper made in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Hans Coper is known as a key figure in the history of studio pottery.
Hans Coper was born in Germany in 1920. When the Nazis came to power his father (who was Jewish) committed suicide, hoping to save the family from further persecution under Nazi rule. Hans fled Nazi Germany in 1939, aged 19, and arrived in London, where his father’s friend sponsored him. But when war was declared, Germans living in Britain were classed as enemy aliens and Coper was promptly sent to Canada where he was interred.
Having joined the Pioneer Corps of the British Army, Coper returned to England in 1941, serving until he was discharged in 1943. Years of deprivation had physically taken its toll on Coper and he was diagnosed with rheumatism in 1943. In fact, it was actually ankylosing spondylitis: a progressive fusion of vertebrae that causes painful stiffening of posture.
Coper was sent to work on a farm in Devon and on his discharge he returned to London in 1943, moving to Stoke Newington in 1944. Coper told William Ohly (who ran a gallery near Berkeley Square) that he wanted to become a sculptor and Ohly recommended that Coper contact Lucie Rie (1902-1995). Rie needed people to work in her studio in Albion Mews, Paddington, making ceramic buttons. Coper began working at her studio in 1946, he was 26 and Rie was 44.
Coper showed a strong interest in ceramics, experimenting with modelling sculptures from clay, but Rie famously refused to show Coper how to throw. So, he enrolled at Woolwich Polytechnic and, as the story goes, after three days, he returned and impressed Rie with his rudimentary throwing skills that from 1948 he was able to assist her with her thrown tableware. Coper went on to display his pots at the Festival of Britain in 1951 alongside Lucie Rie and they frequently exhibited together.

Henry Rothschild, who ran Primavera Gallery in Cambridge, was an admirer of Coper’s work. The Spade Vase was purchased directly from Primavera Gallery in August 1971 by curator Margaret MacFarlane, along with several other notable pots, namely three pieces by Lucie Rie, a bowl by Derek Davis and a pot by David Leach. Margaret MacFarlane was a trailblazing curator who showed phenomenal expertise in the field of ceramics (in particular English Delftware). Her ambition was for the Allen Gallery ceramics collection to be a nationally significant collection – which it very much is – and she warrants further research (her archive is at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and yet to be catalogued).
The Coper Spade Vase forms a key part of the significant British studio pottery collection at the Allen Gallery. Bernard Leach, who is seen as the instigator of British studio pottery, was late to appreciate Coper’s work. The influence of Leach and Michael Cardew on collectors was such that dealers and collectors were perhaps uneasy about showing work that did not receive their blessing.
Coper somewhat tread ground between the art forms of sculpture and pottery and clay was his medium of choice. He was influenced by Jean Arp, Brancusi and Giacometti and taught at Camberwell College of Art and the Royal College of Art in the 1960s.
Coper’s Spade Vase was the first piece I personally researched when I started as a volunteer ceramics researcher at the Allen Gallery in January 2023, in support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund application that was underway. We were offered a number of pieces to choose from and this piece stopped me in my tracks. It didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen before. I was intrigued and began researching Coper’s life and work. As a group of volunteer researchers we visited the Hampshire Culture Trust head office at Chilcomb where I was able to view the vase, currently kept in secure storage. The size of the vase was surprising, the texture of the surface, the weight and physical presence of it. I was in awe.
It went back behind locked doors, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
As a filmmaker, I was struck by the vase and wanted to capture it to show to others. I put forward a proposition to film the Spade Vase and was graciously permitted some time with it. The resulting film shows the vase in detail, in movement, its volume, density and the surface texture. It is a visual ode to Coper’s skill and sculptural lyricism, celebrating the substantial attendance of this phenomenal piece, and sharing it with an audience. It was a privilege to spend time with this piece, my heart always thumped in its presence.
After this first encounter in researching ceramics, I continue to be enthralled by the Allen Gallery ceramics collection and its significance in charting the development and artistry of ceramics, from early medieval pottery through to millennial ceramics. There are so many hidden gems to discover amongst the collection. There is something palpable about ceramics and the skill of the potter in crafting a vessel which holds space. As acclaimed teacher and potter Dora Billington stated, ‘The story of pottery is the story of civilization.’
Please click here for the film: Allen Gallery Spade Vase film, 5 mins, 2023, Abbe Leigh Fletcher
Resurface is open from Wednesday 22 January to Monday 24 March - tickets can be purchased here.