The Perils of 'Investment Collecting'.

I was leafing through a July/August 1994 copy of Crafts, and there was a news item on a recent Bonhams sale and values achieved.
A Michael Cardew earthenware Salad bowl with a sgrafitto Bird. £7000.
An Elizabeth Fritsch 'Floating Pillars Optical Bottle £5000.
A Shoji HAmada Incense Burner £4,000.
An Ian Godfrey stoneware chest £1900.
An Alison Britton stoneware white Box £1000.
Would they go for anything like that nowadays Inflation wise? Bear in mind that was 27 years ago, and property prices have probably quadrupled in that time.

There was a large drop in prices after the dot.com bubble bust around 2000, and 9/11 when the Americans fled the European markets, and then the banking crisis of 2008. I can’t see the Cardew bowl making the same price now, but the others might have regained their losses.

hi Philpot, My advice to anyone considering buying in a collectors market for investment is a resounding don't do it , there are no blue chips in the field of collecting i have lost count of the amount of collecting areas that have crashed and have never recovered. I had some good advice many years ago from a well known collector which was 'buy what you like but count the money as spent'. every one likes to think they have spent wisely but it doesn't always work out that way. I think most of the pieces you mention would still probably struggle which taking into account inflation and resale fees would be a large loss, nice to look at every day though.

in the past 20 years, I have invested tens of thousands in a potfolio that includes thousands of pieces of pottery and hundreds of thousands in a portfolio of 5 houses
The pottery still owes me a few thousand but I have retired on the return from the houses

Yes property has always been a good long term investment even with some ups and downs it always comes good, but with pottery if it comes good fine but if not enjoy.

I suppose as a dealer in ceramics I do buy ceramics as an investment but I would never advise anyone to do it and have always told people when asked that if they want to invest in something purely to make money then choose something else. I began dealing because I enjoyed it and wanted to do something that I enjoyed rather than work at something that I hated. I thought that I would manage to get by and I have. My wife and I own one property and I think I have enough money to "see me out". I still have pots but if they all end up as landfill it's no big deal.

Buy the work of respected potters in their 80s. I should have stocked up on Maltbys and Wallworks when they were relatively cheap.