Martin Brothers

The first sale by dealers-turned-auctioneers Kingham & Orme made a hammer total of £289,490 and was led by a Martin Brothers bird.

The quirky characterful and very British art pottery created by the late 19th/early 20th century artist potters Wallace, Robert and Edwin Martin is as popular in the US as in its country of origin.

Phillips set a new high for Martinware with the sale of this 14in (36cm) high bird jar modelled as Benjamin Disraeli for a double-estimate $190,000 (£126,670).

Two single-owner collections of Martinware – each exceptional in their own way – will appear for sale on either side of the Atlantic this autumn.

Knocking others off their perch, Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis improved upon their own auction record for Martin Brothers with the £75,000 sale of this bird jar to Gloucestershire British art pottery dealers AD Antiques.

New York has hosted three key events in the modern commercial history of the Martin Brothers.

Among the sales in the first hour of the ‘BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair’ was this 5in (13cm) high Martin Brothers grotesque demon jar and cover.

This stoneware bird jar dated 1891 established a new auction record for Martin Brothers when it made £67,000 at the latest Arts and Crafts sale held by Woolley & Wallis.

While anthropomorphic bird figures have long been seen as the most desirable products of the Martin Brothers’ art pottery, recently there has been an upsurge in demand for their equally characterful grotesque models.

THE famous caricature birds crown the top of the tree for Martinware collectors. This is still a strong market where, feels Bonhams’ specialist Mark Oliver, a really top-calibre model could command £40,000 if it came on the market.

THE 16-lot section devoted to Martin Brothers art pottery at Bonhams' latest Ceramic Design sale provided a number of the notable results.

JUST when you thought it was safe to go back into the softening Martinware market, along comes a £26,000 spoon-warmer.

DEMAND for Martin Brothers pottery may have tapered off slightly but it still provided three of the top prices at Bonhams’ recent Ceramic Design sale.

Ealing Council’s Pitzhanger Manor-House has been forced to close its exhibition of Martin Brothers pottery following a burglary – the second to hit the collection in two years.

“Someday,” wrote The Times in August 1912, “collectors will ransack the town for Martin’s artistic stonewares.”

Ealing Council are appealing for information on the theft of 16 pieces of Martin Brothers pottery from Southall Library in the early hours of Monday, May 23.

THE Lambert Collection of British art pottery and furniture comes under the hammer at Bonhams Bond Street (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) on September 22.

“The best example I have seen in the last ten years,” said Woolley and Wallis’ decorative arts specialist Michael Jeffery, of this Martinware bird, which was consigned to the auctioneers’ May 26 sale from a vendor in the New Forest.

This large and important Martin Brothers bird, pictured right and dated 1894, is the main highlight of a diverse sale of ceramics, glass, works on paper, furniture, textiles and metalware, relating to the Arts and Crafts movement inspired by William Morris, to be held at Woolley & Wallis' Salisbury Salerooms on May 26.