I love pieces like this. Dating from back in 2005, this stout little Pot from J. Alan is a little mark in history, offering both a taste of things to come, but also something we're likely to not see again. Just as stout around the walls as it would be on Jeff's bench today, with a sandblast that he'd still be just as proud of (and rightly so), there's maybe a little less girth to the base, a lengthening of the shank and stem. Little touches differing as he treads the line between the soft shaping style of the Danish school and the firmer, more aggressive aesthetic of the American Industrial movement. There's also exotic wood inlaid on the stem base, something I haven't seen from Jeff — who tends now to go for horn and bamboo ornamentations — for quite some time.

Pieces like this show us why, in our hobby, we know that history is important. They're little pieces of the past that we keep and collect, treasure and grow into companions. They show us that the journey is just as important than the destination, if not more so.

Oh, and did I mention that sandblast?

— Adam O'Neill