"These ceramics on display are alive because they tell us something about the people who made them, and the culture in which they lived – their animals, their beliefs. Ceramics allowed these makers to express themselves, to describe their cultural norms and preserve their society, as seen in the English slipware elsewhere in this display. There is a lot of storytelling in ceramics and it is a tradition that we see on pots from all over the world, throughout the ages."