Tableware has occupied a special place in our kitchens and dining rooms for thousands of years, and continues to enchant us today. Ranging from the purely functional to the fine and delicate, the evolution of domestic pots tells us much about our changing tastes and habits, and the wider art and cultural movements that have influenced their decoration and forms. In Contemporary Tableware, maker Linda Bloomfield looks at the history of the pots on our tables, from Sung Chinese and Medieval English ware to the revival of studio pottery and the influence of Scandinavian, American and Japanese design. She goes on to examine common forms in contemporary tableware, including teapots, bowls, cups, jugs and plates, and to explain the elements of form, function and beauty in each. Lavishly illustrated with examples from contemporary studio pottery and industry, as well as making images from working potters, this book is the essential guide to modern tableware for potters, designers and buyers.

Linda Bloomfield has been involved with pottery since 1973, although her career path led her to train as a materials scientist, and she received a BSc in Engineering Science and a PhD in Materials Science from Warwick University. After stints as a visiting scholar at MIT and as a researcher in Tsukuba, Japan and London, she set up her current studio in London in 2001. Since 2003, she has been selling through galleries across the UK and internationally, and her tableware is stocked by Liberty and David Mellor. She is a frequent contributor to Ceramic Review magazine, and is the author of Colour in Glazes, also published by Bloomsbury.