AN early work by Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry has been acquired by the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to add to its growing and significant ceramics collection.

The piece was made 30 years ago at the start of his career and is in the form of a perfume bottle, decorated with drip glazes and poppy seed heads, with four interchangeable stoppers.

The artist was contacted by the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to let him know the work had been added to the collection, and was sent a picture of it, in case he needed reminding of a work he produced thirty years ago.

He said: “When I was young, in the 1980s, I was obsessed - like most young men - with sex. In my case: kinky sex. Not now!”

Perry hasn’t made the perfume bottle shape since.

The piece was bought with money from the Museum and Art Gallery’s Purchase Fund, with support from the Art Fund charity, which helps galleries buy items for their collections.

Sophie Cummings, curator of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, said: “We are very pleased to have acquired a work by Grayson Perry, especially one of his early pieces, which are quite rare.

“His work is exceptional and among the general public he’s undoubtedly the best-known contemporary ceramic artist. His office has told us he is pleased his work is in such good company in the Swindon collection.

“It links nicely to the 1980s paintings we have and bridges the gap between the pictures and the ceramics, as the decoration of the bottle is pictorial in style which is a characteristic of his work.”

The Grayson Perry perfume bottle is now on display at the Museum and Art Gallery in Bath Road.

It is the latest in a number of additions to the ceramic collection.

Earlier this year the Museum and Art Gallery was given 54 ceramics including figurative sculpture, textured vases, delicate porcelain and functional earthenware from some of the most important contemporary ceramicists, such as Edmund de Waal, Robin Welch, David Frith, Betty Blandino, Aki Morinuchi and Sun Kim.

The gift was made by Mark Golder and Brian Thompson, in memory of their friend Ron Sloman, who founded St James Gallery in Bath, which supported many important artists early in their careers.

The Ron Sloman Collection of Contemporary Ceramics was assembled by Golder and Thompson to give visitors an appreciation of the wide variety of techniques, colours, sizes and forms that make up ceramic art. Items from this collection are on display until March 12, 2016.

The Swindon Collection of Studio Ceramics began in 1965 as a research collection for the Swindon Education Committee. The collection was used by ceramics students at Swindon School of Art to inspire their own work.

In the early 1970s, the small collection was given to Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.

Peter Burgess, head of ceramics at Swindon College, offered advice over acquisitions and purchases and the collection of modern and contemporary pottery by both established artists and students grew.

By the 2010s, Swindon had a collection of over a hundred ceramics, by many important makers. These were purchased by Swindon with grant support, or donated to Swindon by local collectors and trusts.

In 2014, Liz Rothschild gave 15 ceramics to the gallery on long-term loan. It included a bowl made by Bernard Leach, one of the most important ceramicists of the 20th century.