Stelios Stamatis (Mantamados, Lesvos)

Armand1 commented 4 years ago

Στις Πέμ, 14 Μαΐ 2020 στις 9:43 π.μ., ο/η Leroi, Armand M a.leroi@imperial.ac.uk έγραψε: Dear Marina,

Thank you for writing to me.

Let me try to explain what we are trying to do. We want to find out how traditional ceramics evolve — change over time. Let me try to be concrete. You will know this famous picture from a book published in 1999. The vases are similar, but different. How are they related to each other? Can we reconstruct their history?

There are two ways of doing that. The first, is to establish a "family tree” of potters. I don’t mean a literal family tree — but rather the chain of teachers. For example, your (father?) Stelios Stamatis was taught by his father, Ephstratios Stamatis (1915-1975). But who taught Ephstratios? And who taught his teacher? And is he connected to Dimitris Kouvdis at Agios Stephanos or does he come from a different tradition?

The second way is to measure the vases — their shapes. We’re focusing on water pitchers since they’re so widely made. We can make a “family tree” of pots — and that should, in general, reflect the family tree of potters.

So, we want to (i) talk to potters, find out who taught them and their teacher and so on. (ii) measure their pots and, if possible, their teachers' pots, as far back as we can go.

I don’t imagine that you can answer all these questions right now. But if this investigation interests you, I would like to come to Mantamados, talk to you and Stelios and find out the deep history of your tradition. And I would like to photograph a bunch of them (like those below from your website). Also, if you have old pots made by Ephstratios (or pictures of them) I would like to take pictures of them.

I hope that is clear and sounds interesting. I am going to make every effort to visit Lesvos this summer — but certainly not before July. (September seems likely.) I hope that we can meet then!

with warmest regards

Armand Leroi Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology Imperial College London

Armand1 commented 4 years ago

Dear Armand Leroi,

It is a great pleasure to answer your questions and give you access to our archive and collection.

We are waiting for you to come to Mantamados.

The place for our workshop is https://www.google.com/maps/place/HAND+MADE+CERAMICS+WORKSHOP+STELIOS+STAMATIS/@39.3099785,26.3317605,18z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x14ba8672cf28d623:0x61e6a118d5e945ae!8m2!3d39.3092231!4d26.3348719

Yours sincerely

Stelios Stamatis

Armand1 commented 4 years ago

Stylianos_1880—>Efstradios_1915—>Stelios_1953—>Marina_1979 Stylianos_1880—>Dimitris_1927—>Panagiotis_1960—>Dimitris_1992

Genealogy of Stamatis potters

? KARANICOLIS 1822 -?	POTTER

STAMATIS KARANICOLIS(FATHER NAME ?) 1850-1898	POTTER
CHILDREN	STYLIANOS	POTTER
	ANNA
	AFRODITI

STYLIANOS STAMATIS (FATHER NAME STAMATIS) 1880-1944
CHILDREN	EFSTRATIOS	POTTER
	MARIA
	PROKOPIS	occasional POTTER
	PANAGIOTIS	occasional POTTER
	DIMITRIS	POTTER

EFSTRATIOS STAMATIS (FATHER NAME STYLIANOS)1915 - 1975
CHILDREN	STELIOS / STYLIANOS	POTTER

DIMITRIS STAMATIS (FATHER NAME STYLIANOS) 1927 - 2012
CHILDREN	MARIA
	PANAGIOTIS	POTTER

STELIOS / STYLIANOS (FATHER NAME EFSTRATIOS) 1953 -
CHILDREN	MARINA	POTTER
	EFSTRATIOS	occasional POTTER

PANAGIOTIS STAMATIS (FATHER NAME DIMITRIOS) 1960 -
CHILDREN	DIMITRIS	POTTER
	EFTHIMIA

Armand1 commented 4 years ago

Stelios definitely makes water jugs. See this from his website. Age unclear, but probably late 2010s.

unnamed

Armand1 commented 4 years ago

Stelios told me that there is a difference between his pots and his grandfather's pots. Every potter has his personal style and can tell them apart.

Around 1953 there were 7 potters in Mantamados and he knew all of them.

Stamatis Stamatis, Dimitris Stamatis (brothers), Theos Stamatis (aunt), Stratis Anagnostu, Stratis Ttgaris, Stratis Psaris, Michaelis Armenakis, Giorgos Levendos. Maybe there were 12 but Stelios only met these 7. They sold all over in Lesvos island. In the whole area there were 10 or 12 and perhaps 50 workshops (?) exporting to Alexandriapolou and Alexandria in Egypt. 3.5k pots per year, but by 1963 it had all stopped because of plastic.

Kouvidis makes a slender neck, Stelios makes a fatter neck on his koumari

He said: only God is the creator; the craftsman is the goat's asshole (meaning the craftsman churns out identical pellets)

There were 9 sizes of koumari, but the prototype size is the father of the others. There's a standard and the others are fractions.

Armand1 / Modern-vases

Stelios Stamatis (Mantamados, Lesvos) #3