Lucie Rie

Two collectors of British studio pottery have bequeathed 100 pieces from their personal collection to The Hepworth Wakefield gallery in Yorkshire.

An early tea set by Lucie Rie is among the works on offer at Erskine, Hall & Coe’s exhibition British Ceramics, which opens tomorrow.

Demand for Lucie Rie’s studio pottery is on a roll. The latest example in the saleroom came at Sotheby’s Made in Britain auction on September 13 when this yellow and bronze glazed bowl from the 1980s sold for £100,000 (plus premium).

The market for Lucie Rie ceramics continues to thrive. A new auction high for the doyenne of the British studio pottery movement was posted by Phillips in New York this month– the fourth occasion a record has been set in just two years.

The stock of the Austrian-born British studio potter Lucie Rie (1902-95) continues to rise in the saleroom.

Specialist art consultancy Maak, established in 2009 by Marijke Varrall-Jones, former head of contemporary ceramics at Bonhams, holds specialist auctions of international studio ceramics twice a year.

DISPERSING 200 mixed-quality clocks may seem a daunting prospect for some provincial auctioneers, but, by selling the Staffordshire collection in bite-size chunks through their general, oak and country and fine auctions, Richard Winterton (15% buyer's premium) managed to get away almost all entries during the summer months.

THE August 25 sale at Burton-on-Trent auctioneers Richard Winterton includes a collection of studio pottery formed since the 1950s by the vendor who trained under, and for over 49 years has been a friend of, David Leach.

SINCE 1986 Christopher Gange has been a dealer in 20th Century British Art at his Katharine House Gallery at The Parade, Marlborough, Wiltshire, but for the month of July, in a new departure, he is holding an important selling exhibition of British Studio Pottery, formerly part of his private collection.

A 221-lot auction of Contemporary Ceramics, made up the final instalment of Bonhams’ design week series on September 24. The two most bankable names in this market are Hans Coper and Lucie Rie and their work can usually be relied on to dominate the top price slots.