141. amber glazed pitcher with finger wipe design

Tatano was also in charge of putting handles to cups and pitchers. In this he had been directly instructed by Bernard Learch. Since then, having put so many handles to pieces Tatano was nicknamed Mr. Handles. The method, called “wet handle”, was to put the hands in water and stretch the chunk of clay into a rod with wet hands, adjust its shape and attach it to the vessel. He recalled that at the beginning he could manage only twenty or thirty handles a day but eventually he was able to attach five hundred handles in one day.