Eric James Mellon Stoneware Plate Horse Plate Signed & Dated 1969 9.5 small handbag The body of the dress The body of the dress is printed with a “ghosted” pattern in an ochre colour and decorated with gold sequins in a repeating flower form motif also an early marking practice The ash glazes that he developed starting in 1965 allowed him to draw and paint on ceramic using a wide range of oxides underglaze and then fire the ceramics to high temperatures without loss of colour or brushwork Mellon tended to draw nudes and mythological figures so this singular image of a horse is different although he did incorporate horses into some of his painted ceramic scenes and did do a horse head sculpture