I prefer the artist’s mark to be unobtrusive. My work is marked underneath in the footring. Over the years, I have used several different marks, shown below.
This is my current mark: my ‘RB’ stamp together with the piece code ‘CE9’. The ‘021’ indicates that the piece was made from my custom porcelain body number 21.
The twin stamps on this piece indicate that the carving was done by Magdalena Królik.
Older pieces have a hand written ‘RB’. This is the mark that is described in the book ‘British Studio Potters’ Marks’ by Eric Yates-Owen and Robert Fournier, ISBN 1408183501.
Pieces made in 2007 and earlier have my hand written mark together with the year and number. This was the 36th piece made in 1998.
Occasionally, I mark the date using the format that the Russian chemist and pioneer of the periodic table of elements, Dmitri Mendeleev, used in his notebooks. The piece shown here, BM0 was made on the 24th of the fifth month of 2016.
The date from one of Mendeleev’s notebooks, the 17th of February 1869. His contribution to the systematic understanding of chemistry through the periodic table of elements remains a powerful tool for potters to this day.
