For more details on Martin Brothers pottery and the market, see ATG’s collecting guide.
1. Bird Jar: £20,000-30,000
An anthropomorphic stoneware bird jar and cover by Robert Wallace Martin is the leading Martin Brothers offering at Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire later this month. Modelled as a sergeant-major standing erectly with a puffed out chest, webbed feet and wings folded neatly behind, the 27cm high jar is one of the distinctive and highly coveted Martinware avian jars modelled after characters from Victorian London.
Estimate: £20,000-30,000
Auction: Tennants, Leyburn, November 18
Lot number: 583
2. Aquatic Vase: £2500-3500
A Martin Brothers ‘aquatic’ vase from 1893 is another lot at the upcoming Tennants sale. In swollen form with a fluted rim, the (23cm) high vase is incised with anthropomorphic fish, eels and jelly fish in brown on a buff ground.
Estimate: £2500-3500
Auction: Tennants, Leyburn, November 18
Lot number: 584
3. Fishing Jug: £400-600
A Martin Brothers stoneware jug decorated with male figures fishing against a pale brown ground appears at Halls Fine Art later this month. The 26cm high jug has blue and green decoration, but has a restored top rim which was originally a spout. It is inscribed ‘E20, RWS Martin, London, 12.74’
Estimate: £400-600
Auction: Halls, Shrewsbury, November 22-23
Lot number: 272
4. Miniature Cone Vase: £200-300
A Martin Brothers miniature ‘gourd’ is offered at Winchester auction house Bellmans sale this month. The 7cm high vase from 1904 is in cone-form and is covered with raised dimples with green centres. In the workshop, while Robert Wallace created the bird jars, his brother Walter was responsible for most of the gourds.
Estimate: £200-300
Auction: Bellmans, Winchester, November 14-15
Lot number: 1188
5. Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Mug: £300-500
A Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee stoneware mug, commissioned from Martin Brothers by the ethnologist and archaeologist Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers, is another piece of Martinware offered at Yorkshire saleroom Tennants this month. As well as featuring the date 1897, a coat of arms and Pitt Rivers’ fox and crown crest, it is inscribed Equam servare mentem (Latin for ‘To preserve an equal mind’). It measures 13cm high.
Estimate: £300-500
Auction: Tennants, Leyburn, November 18
Lot number: 585
