Today, with studios in London and France – and a public figure since appearing as judge and critic on the BBC’s surprisingly popular series The Great Pottery Throwdown – her large sculptural vessels with rich, bright glazes are displayed at, among others, the V&A, the Ashmolean and further afield in Sèvres and Los Angeles.
Sassoon remains her representative and principal dealer, with her best work now commanding five-figure prices.
New talent
A wide pool of dealerships and galleries broadcast the art of contemporary ceramics around the UK. Like Sassoon, they identify and nurture new talent and display the new work of established potters at exhibitions around the country and overseas.
The Contemporary Ceramics Centre in Bloomsbury is the shop window of the Craft Potters Association, representing more than 300 ceramicists across the UK.
Curator Marta Donaghy has, she says, seen the craft change drastically over the years with sculptural work now more in evidence.
In Greenwich, John Rastall has run the Harlequin Gallery for nearly 20 years.
“These days I deal in the sort of pieces I love, which is the Anglo-Japanese thrown work in the tradition of Bernard Leach,” he says. “I admit that 20 years ago I thought that this boom in Lucie Rie and Hans Coper couldn’t last.”
Late 1980s, 12in (30cm) Japanese style bottle vase by William Marshall – £650 at the Harlequin Gallery.
Past Harlequin exhibitions have included work by Richard Batterham, John Maltby, Janet Leach and Poh Chap Yeap.
Meanwhile, the autumn exhibition works included pieces by Alan Wallwork (b.1931) who, though now retired, enjoys a steadily increasing reputation, and William Marshall (1923-2007) who, as chief potter at the Leach studio, “threw many of the best pots produced there”, says Rastall.
The dealer remains an admirer of contemporary work from Japan, particularly from potteries in Hagi and Bizen. Rastall adds: “Probably of special note is the young Bizen potter, Kazuya Ishida, who has gained a considerable interest in recent years.”
