This stoneware jar measures 16 inches to the finial by 7.75 inches at it widest point. This jar is signed with conjoined JMC, as shown. Per Vasefinder and Charlie B Gallery, James Morris Cotter (1940-) was born in Albany, California. His first interaction with clay was when he asked his high school teacher in Yuba City, California, if he could use the wheel that lay dormant in their classroom. From high school, he studied at the University of Nevada Reno, where he spent a couple years before matriculating at CSU Chico. He received his undergraduate degree in art followed by a teaching credential at CSU Chico. He attended the CCAC or CCA for one year, where he was a student of Vernon Coykendall and Viola Frey. After serving in the Navy during Vietnam, he would accept a position at Yuba City High School, where he taught several art subjects for almost two decades. He has worked in several mediums in addition to pottery including painting, printmaking and sculpture in bronze, wood and stone. His work in pottery is primarily functional in content with an arsenal of powerful forms and glazes that make him an important artist of the Movement. He has exhibited on a limited basis with a one-man show at CSU Sacramento and Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County to just mention a couple locations. His work is held in the permanent collection of the City of Sacramento, as well as many private collections around the world. This jar is from the Vasefinder Collection.

There is no post-factory damage, such as chips, cracks, hairlines or repairs. There is minor soiling over the surfaces from modest use.