WOOLLEY AND WALLIS studio pottery auctions

A good sale with another large amount of Batterham from the potter's estate plus some very nice pieces of art pottery as well as studio items, Wooley's autumn sale is normally worth waiting for and always contains something of interest.

Hi philpot, I couldn't agree more the Mallams sale today also gave the same impression, as for the black and white John Ward pot in Wooley's, i thought i might buy it but at the moment i am not prepared to get dragged into five figures for a pot.

Looking at both sales, the Mallams one was largely a collection of bits and bobs, with most of them not very popular these days. The W & W sale had much better pieces and I thought the Batterhams made more than I would have expected, considering that a number of "new collectors" of his work that fell for the hype have become cheesed off. Most of the other potters that haven't been mentioned above sold (when commission is added on) for more than I would have expected to achieve for the the same pieces, if I was selling them.

Basically, there's a lot of stuff coming up for auction and if the doom and gloom was really concerning buyers, I think a larger number would have gone unsold.

From my recent experiences, the vast majority of studio pottery collectors still have money to spend but have far more choice than I have known since I began dealing.

Woolley and Wallis spring design sale now on line. The majority of the sale is given over to many pieces of Batterham and Leach school . I am amazed at the take up of this type of ware with so much coming to the market recently.

Several years before Richard Batterham stopped potting the number of people interested in work by him that I had for sale increased considerable and these were new younger collectors in their 30s and 40s. Like the majority of collectors that I have always sold to, these were well paid professionals. They wouldn't have been around in the heyday of the Leach school and so the collecting base is much larger than it was 10 years ago.

There look to be some crazy Batterham prices to me, especially when you multiply by 1.3 but I remember the standard prices when he was potting and the prices that I sold things for last week.

I will be having email correspondence with a collector later and see what he feels about the auction.

It was the Martin Bros. prices that shocked me.
£63,000 for a spoon warmer It was 'only' estimated at £15,000 - £25,000.

I guess that depends on your definition of conservative  
But yeh, I know what you mean.
I've always really liked the Martin Bros. work and I fell in luv with the 'imp' musicians when I first saw them about 25 years ago in the Potteries Museum. But all the stuff I like is WELL above my budget!!

It's just weird how some works by some potters, go for sums many times (10's even 100's) their original selling prices. Whilst others, equally well made (sometimes better), never reach even their original selling price

Woolley and Wallis design 21st March sale is now published on their website. Studio pottery from Lot 216. Another large helping of Batterham from his estate ,where does it all find homes?, a very ordinary  sale i think.

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da210324/?p=1&s=160&v=list

I quite agree philpot , i can't see many established collectors wanting much from this sale but anybody thinking of starting an inexpensive collection of traditional pottery then this might seem an attractive sale, the only interest for me is lot495 the Collingwood hanging. As well made as Batterham pots are the hundreds that Woolley's have put on the market since his death have somewhat cheapened the product, gone are the days when they sat on their white pedestals at Goldmark at highly inflated prices .

Hi philpot , Many of the 'general ceramics', as you put it have taken a bit of a downturn over a number of years, the very best still seem to be selling reasonably well but the more ordinary are suffering somewhat, Brannum, Elton ware etc have all taken large hits, Ruskin needs to be of the high fired variety to sell well and has a fairly small but dedicated group of collectors as do the products of Della Robbia, William De Morgan and Martin ware are still very strong but potteries like Ault and Linthorpe are patchy with mainly those with a dresser facsimile selling well. As for the sale Batterham seems to sell well in this room .

Back when all of the London auction houses had stopped their studio pottery sales, Woolley and Wallis was on of the few auction houses where studio pottery was offered in any quantity and quality and I used to attend and stay overnight in a B&B in Salisbury. Part of the trip was usually a visit to Richard at his pottery to buy some gallery stock, as he wasn't far away. He was the local supplier of domestic functional tableware and so would have had a vast number of people around Salisbury that bought his pots for use. Therefore it's logical that the Batterham prices do well there.