"Stagshead" Vase

170 high x round top & bottom 75mm diameter.

Clearly signed with Len's LC logo, side of work @bottom.

Provenance : Private Collection Christchurch traded on an oil painting. Excellent condition.

Born in Auckland in 1924, Castle graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1946 from University of Auckland and trained as a secondary school teacher, eventually taking a lecturing position at the Auckland College of Education. His first experience of pottery was as a 10-year-old, seeing Olive Jones demonstrating at the Auckland Easter Show. Castle began making his first pottery in 1947 and took night classes with Robert Nettleton Field at Avondale College, Auckland. In 1956 he moved to St Ives, Cornwall for a year to work with Bernard Leach and became a full-time potter in 1963.

In the early 1950s, Castle met Theo Schoon and Schoon decorated the surfaces of pots thrown and fired by Castle. In the 1960s Schoon introduced him to the geothermal areas of the central North Island of New Zealand. Castle has continued to photograph this landscape area, which is also reflected in his pottery.

Castle studied pottery in Japan, Korea and China in 1966–67.] He named Shoji Hamada as one of his influences. In 1989, along with a number of other New Zealand ceramic and glass artists, he was commissioned to supply work for the exhibition Treasures of the Underworld for the NZ pavilion at the World Expo at Seville in 1991. This work is now in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

In the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to pottery. Four years later, he was awarded the NZ 1990 Commemoration Medal. Castle was appointed as a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 2004 for services to pottery. In 2009, he declined redesignation as a Knight Companion when the NZ government restored titular honours.

In 2003, Castle received an Icon award from the NZ Arts Foundation. Castle died on 29 Sept 2011