THE home-made potters wheel of a major 20th Century artist has gone on display in York.

York Art Gallery is currently exhibiting Jans Coper’s wheel, which he made himself in 1959, and used to make many of his famous ceramic pieces.

The German-born British studio potter was the first potter whose work reached over £1,000 at auction and his work is now highly sought after.

Coper came to the UK from Germany in 1939 as a refugee from the Second World War, and experimented with Modernism, throwing pieces on the pottery wheel, then cutting and reassembling to create unusual items which he referred to as pots, not sculptures.

Helen Walsh, curator of ceramics, said she hoped the exhibit, which also features several of Coper’s works, would inspire young artists.

She said: “We invite people to come and see the pottery wheel alongside some of the objects Coper made on it and hope it will inspire future generations of artists. He was one of the most important, enigmatic potters of the twentieth century and his work became synonymous with the British Studio Pottery movement. He was a source of inspiration to many other artists such as Gordon Baldwin, Alison Britton and Elizabeth Fritsch.” He was the first potter whose work reached over £1,000 at auction and is considered by enthusiasts to represent a new European style. Ms Walsh said she was “thrilled” Coper’s family had loaned the wheel, and the gallery now had a case dedicated to his work, recognising him as one of the top ten artists in the Hall of Fame exhibition. The wheel is on display in the gallery’s Centre of Ceramic Art until August 2017.