Pictured here is Perry’s 2ft 2in (66cm) high glazed earthenware vase, I Want to be an Artist, dating from circa 1996. It was the first major piece by Perry to have appeared at auction since his December Turner Prize triumph.
Three telephones and at least three bidders in the room were
prepared to contest the vase beyond the £10,000-15,000 estimate, a telephone eventually triumphing at £30,000.
Given that a similar piece was on sale at last October’s Frieze art fair at £15,000, prices for Essex’s greatest living transvestite potter have at least doubled since December.
Grayson Perry's 2ft 2in (66cm) high glazed earthenware vase makes £30,000
An unprecedented crowd of over 500 people turned up to watch, if not bid, at Sotheby’s near sell-out Part I auction of contemporary art on February 5. A stream of telephone bids created numerous eye-catching results, including new auction highs for Nicolas de Staël (£1.15m), Richard Hamilton (£100,000), R.B. Kitaj (£220,000), Paul Pfeiffer (£40,000) and last year’s Turner Prizewinner Grayson Perry (b.1960).
