Ceramics

ALTHOUGH the market for Clarice Cliff appears to be going through one of its periodic troughs, a private collection coming up for sale still virtually guarantees wide interest.

Bonhams are consolidating their reputation for high-profile and prestigious single-owner ceramics collections with another big name to add to the recent roll-call. After Bernard Watney, Norman Stretton, Billie Paine et al come Jeanne and Milton Zorensky, the first part of whose mammoth collection of First Period Worcester is to be offered for sale in Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms this month.

Highlight of the sale conducted by Andrew Grant at the Bank House Golf and Country Club at Bransford, Worcester on February 19 were two Royal Worcester potpourri vases decorated by John Stinton. Both carried fine renditions of the artist’s trademark Highland cattle in moorland, including this example standing 12in (30cm) high with twin leaf-form handles and piercing and ribbon swags to the neck.

KENSINGTON ceramics dealer Garry Atkins holds his traditional annual exhibition of English pottery at his gallery at 107 Kensington Church Street, London W8 from March 9 to 20. There are 47 specially chosen items in the catalogue, which is free to those who attend the show or £8 by post.

Countless numbers of sardine dishes were turned out by the 100 or so potteries who made majolica wares in the final third of the 19th century but for some collectors the mission is to find an example of each.

THE Staffordshire potters never missed a commercial trick. Despite the political differences that may have existed between the USA and Britain following the War of 1812, large quantities of transfer-printed wares were made specifically for the American export market during the first half of the 19th century.

2004 is shaping up well for arts publishing, and publishers of books which cover the genre also reported excellent sales last year, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Here, the Antiques Trade Gazette takes a look at some of the books on offer this year, many of which will be reviewed.

Having sold the first tranche of a single-owner collection of 18th century Derby porcelain in their May 2003 fine sale, Wintertons Fine Arts will be hoping for similar success when part two is offered in their March 17 sale in Lichfield.

There is no doubt that a weak dollar has contributed to a weaker UK majolica market – and yet low estimates for good pieces continue to stimulate bidding.

Whether your penchant is for Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco or later 20th century design, and whether you are looking for examples in ceramic, glass, metallic, furnishing or sculptural form, Sotheby’s Olympia’s first Decorative Arts sale of 2004 promises its usual broad mix.

Following the £620 sale of three Wedgwood Ravilious Coronation mugs in November, Tom Delaney of Mallams in Cheltenham recalled seeing a similar mug in a local house – this much rarer example transfer printed with a brick kiln together with a silhouette portrait of Stoke-on-Trent’s most famous son and the inscription Josiah Wedgwood Barlaston 1940 Etruria 1730.

ENGLISH POTTERY AND LATER ENGLISH CERAMICS: The mixed-owner, all-English sale held by Bonhams Bond Street on December 10 covered a much broader canvas than the Billie Pain collection. It ranged from early delftwares to 20th century Royal Worcester, with examples of most other ceramic categories in between.

Combining exotic subject matter with rarity value, figures of the Victorian lion-tamer Isaac Van Amburgh are among the most desirable of all Staffordshire portrait figures.

THERE will be even greater English trade interest in one of the big success stories of recent years on the New York fairs scene – The New York Ceramics Fair. The fair, which has expanded from four to five days and will run at the National Academy of Design Museum, 1083 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, from January 14 to 18 with a preview party on the evening of January 13.

THE inscription Wilkes And Liberty No. 45 on this 9in (23cm) diameter Lambeth delftware portrait plate is as good as a date as it refers to the publication of the 45th issue of John Wilkes’ sharp-tongued periodical The North Briton.

Prior to the sale of two record-breaking lots of Beswick at Bonhams’ October 28 sale – a colour trial Galloway Bull (£8800) and the Spirit of Whitfield (£9500) – the auction record for Beswick could well have been the £3500 paid for this rare figure at Potteries Specialist Auctions on October 22.

The technique of Limoges enamelling, imitated by a number of historically-minded potteries in the second half of the 19th century, was championed at Worcester by Thomas Bott and then by his son Thomas John Bott.

To mark the last firing of a traditional bottle oven in 1978, the Royal Doulton factory produced a special backstamp to apply to the base of a few otherwise ordinary character jugs.

This unmarked mid-19th century chamber pot was one of the choice lots in the mixed-vendor section of Dreweatt Neate’s recent sale.

David Drakard is well known for his contribution to our knowledge of British ceramics both as a longstanding member of the English Ceramic Circle and as the author of two books on blue printed wares.