Maw & Co vase designed by Walter Crane – £10,600 at Adam Partridge.
They were shown together with other art pottery wares at the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society’s Third Exhibition in 1890.
Few collectors own the complete set, although the seven can be seen together at Rode Hall in Cheshire (where Crane often stayed as a young man). Its set was completed in 2006 with the purchase of a square-handled Four Seasons vase at Lawrences of Bletchingley for £7600.
While it is not the rarest design, probably the most desirable of the seven is a 12½in (31cm) high slender ovoid vase decorated with four classical maidens.
When Law Fine Art sold the Andrew Keith collection in 2005 one of these made a freak £42,000. More recently one took £7500 at Kinghams’ sale of the Anthony Cross collection in Moreton-in June 2021.
Another came for sale at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield on October 12-14 as part of a north-west private collection.
The guide was £1000-1500, on account of some sprayed restoration to the rim, but it sold at £10,600.
Stag charger
Maw & Co leaping stag charger – £3100 at Tennants.
Maw & Co was among the first firms to produce lustre wares using industrial processes. Another fine example of the output came for sale at Tennants’ (22% buyer’s premium) sale of 20th Century Design in Leyburn on October 15.
This charger, measuring 22in (55cm), is decorated with a leaping stag in foliage within a border of running hounds. To the base is a neatly observed image of a seated Bactrian camel and the monogram MJ for Maw Jackfield.
The estimate at the North Yorkshire auction was £1500-2000 and the hammer price £3100.
Another charger of this size decorated with thistle, rose and shamrocks took £4500 at Lyon & Turnbull of Edinburgh in April 2020.
