THE JOHN DRISCOLL COLLECTION AT PHILLIPS IN LONDON

I have just sat through 7 hours of Phillips sale online of the Driscoll collection, an excellent watch with good auctioneers, many records were broken with a Coper pot fetching £520,000, and many others beating their previous best right across the board. I am not familiar with kitaoji Roasajin.

I sat through the last few lots, as I wanted to see how my "favourite potters" fared. To be honest I thought it must be over by then.

It was mind numbingly slow but I suppose people do need time to think all over the world when bidding that kind of money.

I think you ought to get a free pot from the collection for sitting through 7 hours of it.

P. S. I didn't get Lot 13, which I would have liked.

Hi studio-pots , I expect it was the De Waal piece that you were interested in at £32,000  ,a roughly potted porcelain  cylinder a snip at that price. I really enjoyed this  sale  , i couldn't sit through a Partridge one for instance  but this one was quite entertaining and the auctioneer was a lot prettier.

Well the market for top end stuff looks awash with money from where I sit.

https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/UK050321

Hi Crawford, I think the market for the top end has always been awash with money ,you must admit it's nicer to own a piece of Coper or similar rather than having spare money kicking around.

Hi studio-pots, I am not familiar with Kitaoji Rosajin.

Well looks like you will soon need a spare £100k or two if you want a Coper pot, crazy!

croker wrote:Hi studio-pots, I am not familiar with Kitaoji Rosajin.

His real name was Kitaoji Fusajiro. He changed it to Rosanjin himself, as he thought it was apt. It means "foolish mountain man".

He was a kind of Gordon Ramsay of Japanese food before Ramsay was born and before he took up making pots................ to put food on. He painted, arranged flowers and did a bit of calligraphy too.

In 1954 he had an exhibition of his pots at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and twice told the powers that be within the Japanese ceramics world where to stick it when they wanted to make him a National Living Treasure.

What's not to like about the man?

I have a few little bits and bobs of his.

22 Crawford St. wrote:Well looks like you will soon need a spare £100k or two if you want a Coper pot, crazy!

I have never wanted one and have turned several down to buy to sell because I didn't think they were any good and I'm not a salesman, so couldn't bullshit.

The one that fetched the highest price looked OK to me though.

It just shows you what Star Power does for you. Lots of records in that sale. Studio pottery joins the bottom end of the mad prices in the Contemporary Art Market.

To put it in perspective of course. Headline news in the Times art section that a Peter Doing 1990 painting fetches near £30 million.
The Driscoll collection had some amazing prices. But still chicken feed in the wider Art Market.

As you say Philpot still only moderate prices compared with the wider art market , this sale was truly international with bids from many places in the world ,most of the Coper pieces went to the US while many of the other pots were spread around. Prices were high probably deservedly so for the Copers and a number of other pieces, this was probably the last chance many serious collectors with money had of obtaining museum quality pieces such as these. I noticed one piece of Mary Rogers went to Cambridge ,you by any chance?, . I suppose a multi millionaire spending half a million on a piece would be no different from us spending a few thousand on our pieces . I don't think these prices for the more ordinary pieces will be will be sustainable. I think we have to remember that Driscoll had contacts throughout the art world and the auctioneer did state that Driscoll family members could be bidding.

Mary Rogers frilly knickers work is nice, but a little too tweeish feminine for me! I am just satisfied to sit and look at this sort of auction now. The logic of Space being non-existent to put much else has a sobering effect.
The mid market is an interesting one. Like anything else in collecting it is totally unpredictable.

Intriguing results in the sale were that of the kwali pots and i wonder if this could be the start of the rise of the African potters , i know you predicted this in a previous post and i have often thought they were undervalued artistically ,i see no reason why kwali can't reach the heights of Odundo.

Mind you of course, London auction houses now include the Buyer's premium in the Final total you see. Hence the odd numbers in the Final price. Those Sold prices are not Hammer prices. Phillip's Buyer's Premium in the UK is 31.2% including VAT.

croker wrote: Intriguing results in the sale were  that of the kwali pots and i wonder if this could be the start of the rise of the African potters , i know you predicted  this in a previous post and i have often thought they were undervalued artistically ,i see no reason why kwali can't reach the heights of Odundo.

Nigeria is now one of the biggest economies in Africa. With lots of newly created wealthy people who have the money to bring back their heritage to their country, A La china.