“Under the hammer” is standard auction parlance, but it sounds ominous when it’s used for a ceramics auction. There is nothing ominous about the British collection that Cowan’s Auction will be offering on Friday, May 9th: 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. A couple is downsizing their lives and the most exceptional group of British studio pottery is being offered.
CFile cannot find a US auction in the recent past that comes anywhere close to matching this group. Aside from the stalwarts including Bernard Leach, Michael Cardew, Shoji Hamada (not British but key to this tradition) there are also works by important potters that rarely are seen for sale. Here there are works by Nora Braden, William Staite Murray and the surrealist T. Sam Haile. Work by those who studied with Leach and Cardew from Richard Batterham to Ray Finch and Mark Hewitt is also in the group.
There is also a sale of a wide group works by American ceramists, some Europeans and a selection of superb, singular works by two Japanese potters.
Descriptions of some of the works follow in the photographs below.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
Above image: Bernard Leach (1887-1979; Hong Kong/Britain), Pilgrim Plate “The Wanderer,” ca. 1979, wax resist porcelain; 1.25″ x 12″, artist stamps on base.
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Bernard Leach (1887-1979; Hong Kong/Britain), Ash Fired Vase with Rake Design, ca. 1960s, stoneware; 10.5″ x 9.5,” artist stamps on side.
Bernard Leach (1887-1979; Hong Kong/Britain), Bowl with Incised Decoration, ca. 1950, stoneware, 4″ x 9″; artist stamp on base.
Nora Braden, White Vase, ca. 1983, ash-glazed stoneware; 5″ x 3.5,” artist signed and dated on base.
Braden began working at the Leach Pottery in 1925, ultimately meeting Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie who had been at the Leach Pottery previously and in 1928 joined her at the Cole Pottery at Mill Cottage on the Pleydell-Bouverie family estate at Coleshill, Berkshire. Braden admired strong simple forms and her practice extended to tall narrow-necked bottles and round vases.
Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, (1895-1985; Britain) Ovoid Vase, ca. 1928, stoneware; 12″ x 5,” artist stamp on base and on foot.
A pioneer of British Studio Pottery, Pleydell-Bouverie’s interest in pottery began when she visited Roger Fry at his Omega Workshops which led to her studying pottery with Dora Billington. In 1924 she was taken on by Bernard Leach and remained at the Leach Pottery for a year and learned alongside Michael Cardew and Shoji Hamada. In 1925 she started her first pottery and in 1946 created her second pottery at Kilmington Manor where she worked until her death in 1985. Pleydell-Bouverie described herself as “a simple potter. I like a pot to be a pot, a vessel with a hole in it, made for a purpose.”
Richard Batterham (1936, Britain), Pair of Tall Baluster Vases, ca. 2001-06, glazed stoneware, each 31″ x 13.5″
Pair of Tea Caddies, ca. 2001-06, glazed stoneware, 8.5″ x 7″ and 9.5″ x 8″
David Leach (1911-2005; Britain), Vase with Incised Rings, stoneware, 13″ x 16,” artist stamp at foot.
David Leach began his apprenticeship with his father at St. Ives, Cornwall in 1930. He subsequently managed the Leach changing over from a wood-burning to an oil-burning kiln and modernizing the workshop. In 1955 Leach left St. Ives to set up the Lowerdown Pottery at Bovey, Tracey, Devon. His style was very close to that of his father, but the difference in their nature made for very different pots.
William Marshall (1923-2007; Britain), Large Round Vase with Blossom Design, ca. 2004, slip decorated stoneware, 14.5″ x 12.5″
Michael Cardew (1901-1983; Britain), Winchcombe Green Jar, ca. 1926-39, glazed earthenware, 16.5″ x 11.5,” artist stamp at foot.
Cardew was the first British apprentice at the Leach pottery, St. Ives, Cornwall in 1923. He shared an interest in slipware with Leach and was influenced by the pottery of Shoji Hamada. In 1926 he left St. Ives to restart the Greet Potteries at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. With the help of former chief thrower Elijah Comfort and fourteen year-old Sydney Tustin, he set about rebuilding the derelict pottery.
Michael Cardew (1901-1983, Britain), Winchcombe Cider Jar, ca. 1926-39, stoneware with wood spiggot, 14″ x 7″
Michael Cardew (1901-1983; Britain), Winchcombe Teapot with Metal Handle, ca. 1932, slip-decorated earthenware, 10″ x 15″ x 10,” artist stamps on base.
William Staite Murray (1881-1962; Britain), Tall Korean-style Vase, stoneware, 15.5″ x 6.5,” artist stamp at foot.
T. Sam Haile (1909-1948; Britain), Pitcher with Slip Decoration, earthenware, 8.5″ x 7″ x 6,” slip signed at handle.
Shoji Hamada (1894-1978; Japan), Tenmoku Vase with Finger Rake Design, glazed stoneware, 11.5″ x 4.5,” includes artist-signed box.
Below: Tan on Persimmon Vase, ca. 1943, stoneware with wax resist, 11.75″ x 9.5,” includes artist-signed box.
Hamada was a significant influence on studio pottery of the twentieth century, and a major figure of the Mingei folk-art movement, establishing the town of Mashiko as a world-renowned pottery center. In 1955, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology designated Hamada a “Living National Treasure.”
Shoji Hamada (1894-1978; Japan), Square Vase with Decoration, stoneware, 9.75″ x 4.75″ x 4.75″
Read Garth Clark’s Editorial on Tradition in Pottery
Read Matt Jones’s interview with Garth Clark
Read our post about Mark Hewitt in Abuja
Read about the upcoming documentary on the Mingei folk art movement
Read about Tanya Harrod’s book on Michael Cardew
There should be a eulogy for the disbandment of this collection. Seen intact and
in-situ in the collectors home, a visit there was as good as having a full fledged religious experience. So deeply satisfying. The Humility of Tradition in all its radiance.
An Edwin Muir poem must follow, please scroll down,…..
Horses
Those lumbering horses in the steady plough,
On the bare field – I wonder, why, just now,
They seemed terrible, so wild and strange,
Like magic power on the stony grange.
Perhaps some childish hour has come again,
When I watched fearful, through the blackening rain,
Their hooves like pistons in an ancient mill
Move up and down, yet seem as standing still.
Their conquering hooves which trod the stubble down
Were ritual that turned the field to brown,
And their great hulks were seraphims of gold,
Or mute ecstatic monsters on the mould.
And oh the rapture, when, one furrow done,
They marched broad-breasted to the sinking sun!
The light flowed off their bossy sides in flakes;
The furrows rolled behind like struggling snakes.
But when at dusk with steaming nostrils home
They came, they seemed gigantic in the gloam,
And warm and glowing with mysterious fire
That lit their smouldering bodies in the mire.
Their eyes as brilliant and as wide as night
Gleamed with a cruel apocalyptic light,
Their manes the leaping ire of the wind
Lifted with rage invisible and blind.
Ah, now it fades! It fades! And I must pine
Again for the dread country crystalline,
Where the blank field and the still-standing tree
Were bright and fearful presences to me.
Edwin Muir
I have seen the pots to be auctioned at Cowan’s at the collector’s home on several occasions and can verify how spectacular they are. In fact, even more special when witnessed within the home of the collector, placed “just so” in groupings of interest and also adjacent to no lesser furniture and furnishings. Seeing a collection as a whole and in situ is by far the best way to experience them because the aesthetic and logic of their gathering becomes evident. This is why ideally they should remain intact and housed within a museum where they can be cared for, studied and made available for the public to see. While it is with some sorrow that I see they are going on the block, I’m sure it is nothing like the former owner’s sadness in seeing their friends leave home. Hopefully they will find new owners who will equally treasure them. I wouldn’t mind a few myself! Best and thanks to CFile. Tony