Ceramics

A pottery has stood in the Welsh village of Ewenny for five centuries but the collecting market tends to focus on those pieces produced under the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement in the late 19th century.

Tony Horsley specialises in English porcelain and pottery and is among those exhibiting at the next edition of Art & Antiques for Everyone (November 15-18).

Bigger and better sales for Midlands and Surrey auctioneers and a successful debut auction for the new York venture Duggleby Stephenson (17.5% buyer’s premium) made for an encouraging start to autumn.

The appearance of the 19th century Meissen figure based on Kaendler’s original Count Bruhl’s Tailor begins to bring to mind Monty Python’s Green Knight as he rides undaunted into UK auctions despite his increasingly battered state.

A private collection of more than 30 pieces of Pilkington’s Lancastrian lustre excelled when offered at Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on October 10.

If the work of the best modern and contemporary artists is typically confined to a small coterie of London auctioneers, then the same cannot be said of the best modern and contemporary ceramics.

ATG's timeline of the studio pottery movement from Paul Gauguin's early productions to the major sales taking place in 2017-18.

In 1997, the year Kate Malone (b.1959) graduated from the Royal College of Arts, Knightsbridge-based Adrian Sassoon showed her work at The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar.

The new catalogue White Gold, produced by Brian Haughton and colleague Paul Crane, includes the fine 18th and 19th century material for which Haughton has made his worldwide reputation.

Born in Paris, now based in Falmouth, Michel François trained as a sculptor but switched to ceramics, becoming artist in residence at the Bernard Leach Studio.

British studio pottery, once the preserve of a small number of devotees, currently ranks among the strongest subsets of the art and antiques market. In the first element of a two-part feature, ATG considers the London market.

They won’t show it on the rostrum and probably not with clients but auction house professionals do have a likeness for particular artists.

The profile of Scottish potter Jennifer Lee (b. 1956) received a £50,000 boost at the Royal Centre for Design in Kensington this summer when she won the Loewe Craft Prize 2018 with her abstract stoneware vessel illustrated here.

The ‘British’ studio ceramics movement has long been backed by overseas talent. In addition to Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth (nee Windmuller), who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, and Hamada Shoji’s collaboration with Bernard Leach, is the contribution of Kenyan-born Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950).

Proof of a burgeoning market, a series of stellar results for British studio pottery were posted at the ‘Made in Britain’ sale conducted by Sotheby’s on Bond Street.