Decorative Art

ATG's timeline of the studio pottery movement from Paul Gauguin's early productions to the major sales taking place in 2017-18.

In 1997, the year Kate Malone (b.1959) graduated from the Royal College of Arts, Knightsbridge-based Adrian Sassoon showed her work at The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar.

The new catalogue White Gold, produced by Brian Haughton and colleague Paul Crane, includes the fine 18th and 19th century material for which Haughton has made his worldwide reputation.

From the very beginning of his career as an independent silversmith in the late 18th century, the London craftsman Paul Storr received numerous noble and royal commissions. He was the foremost artisan in his field from the early 1790s until the late 1830s and supplied most of the silverware purchased by the royal household during this period.

Born in Paris, now based in Falmouth, Michel François trained as a sculptor but switched to ceramics, becoming artist in residence at the Bernard Leach Studio.

Among the more sizeable lots at the auction on October 19-20 at Kaupp in Sulzburg near the Black Forest is an early 20th century stained glass window, measuring 10ft 2in x 5ft 11in (3.09 x 1.8m).

Two leading regional auction houses – Lyon & Turnbull and Dreweatts – are trying new format sales this autumn in the hope of increasing demand for traditional European art and antiques. Both are creating room sets for viewing works.

British studio pottery, once the preserve of a small number of devotees, currently ranks among the strongest subsets of the art and antiques market. In the first element of a two-part feature, ATG considers the London market.

They won’t show it on the rostrum and probably not with clients but auction house professionals do have a likeness for particular artists.

The only known item of silverware to have survived from a lavish diplomatic gift presented to Louis XIV by the King of Siam has been acquired by the Palace of Versailles via a private treaty sale through auction firm Beaussant Lefèvre.

The profile of Scottish potter Jennifer Lee (b. 1956) received a £50,000 boost at the Royal Centre for Design in Kensington this summer when she won the Loewe Craft Prize 2018 with her abstract stoneware vessel illustrated here.

The ‘British’ studio ceramics movement has long been backed by overseas talent. In addition to Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth (nee Windmuller), who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, and Hamada Shoji’s collaboration with Bernard Leach, is the contribution of Kenyan-born Magdalene Odundo (b. 1950).

“A truly beautiful medal and a royal provenance make this something quite out of the ordinary. And, without hesitation, we can say that it is unique.” Stephen Fenton, specialist at Baldwin’s of St James’s, singled out a George IV accession medal as a highlight of the Peter Earthy collection.

Proof of a burgeoning market, a series of stellar results for British studio pottery were posted at the ‘Made in Britain’ sale conducted by Sotheby’s on Bond Street.

The Northern Antiques Fair, an annual Harrogate event, is a chance for connoisseur buyers in the north to shop a little closer to home.

This rare pair of Minton majolica hen and rooster vases priced at £16,675 on the stand of Madelena will be among the highlights of the Arley Hall Antiques & Fine Art Fair in Cheshire which runs from September 28-30.