Svend Bayer made this screw top jar at Wenford Bridge near Bodmin in Cornwall where he was learning his trade with Michael Cardew. Svend was there from 1969 to 1972, in theory he was an apprentice but he says that he learned by watching Cardew rather than being taught and Cardew let him make whatever he liked. At the time there would have been lots of pots that Cardew had brought back from his time in Nigeria and this jar is Svend's take on a Nigerian oil jar from Abuja.

The jar is 32 cm tall, has a screw threaded stopper and bears one of Cardew's brown paper labels showing its original price was £4 10s suggesting a date of before February 1971 when the U.K. moved to decimal currency. I have seen a number of these oil jars by Svend and there is a similar example by Cardew in the V & A museum in London.