Fine pottery holds us in contemplation (6)
I believe the answer is:
musing
'contemplation' is the definition.
(I know that contemplation can be written as musing)
'fine pottery holds us' is the wordplay.
'fine pottery' becomes 'ming' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'holds' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ming' going around 'us' is 'MUSING'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for musing that I've seen before include "Meditating" , "Pondering, thinking" , "Absorbed in thought" , "Reflecting in silence" , "Reflecting or pondering" .)