pottery overload

Quoting Philpot "can you have too much of good thing", i think the answer is yes,in many fields of collecting you may have to wait for ages for the right pieces too come along but it seems that in most areas of studio pottery it sometimes feels like shopping in a supermarket with everything available just to pop into your basket, The sheer volume of pots by some potters appearing in the marketplace is amazing, this month alone there are 35 pieces of John Ward available in various auctions and recently around 200 of Malones pots came up for sale, Maltby seems to be everywhere,It will be interesting to see what effect this eventually has on prices.

They’re not cheap, though. If they don’t reach their reserves then I predict they’ll go back in the cupboard and come out in dribs and drabs over the next few years. If they’re from deceased owners then maybe they’ll have low reserves and sell at bargain prices

Its all like being a kid in a sweet shop with too much choice!
Back in the good old days pre 2008 all the Big London auctioneers used to have several studio pottery auction a year of several hundred lots. Moreover, most of them had specialist studio pottery  sales at their lesser offices. Bonhams at Bath, Christies at the much missed South Kensington site. Plus the normal provincial autioneers Wooley and Wallis, Mallams et al
          There was a far far greater quantity of stuff in all those auctions  than there is nowadays! Adam Partridge has 2 sales, Makk 2 or 3. The Big auction London Auctioneers Faff about with a scattering of Studio pottery in the various Modern Made, Crafts etc.  etc. You still have the provincial auctioneers doing much the same. That is about it.
          Its just that nowadays it all available there at the click of a mouse, or finger swipe ay any time! It is just al too easy! Back then you had to wait for the thick catalogue to drop through the letter box with a nice proper thump. Then slowly peruse through  all those glossy pages.
Then if you were seriously interested you needed to view it in Central London. Always an excuse for a special day away! It was all so much more exciting back then!
              Alternatively of course, we are all just too jaded collectors

When i was dealing i had to subscribe for catalogues to the auction rooms that interested me Christies South ken for one and as you say much missed, ATG was another source , it meant a lot of travelling around to auctions and antique shops to buy stock (yes you could buy in shops then and still make a profit) it was all very enjoyable and i still miss the buzz i got when something rare was found and it probably paid for a months wages. But as philpot points out it is now so easy to buy ,the internet has taken a lot of the excitement from collecting and dealing alike,items are too easy to access and items rarely slip through.

Philpot, it just called change. Saw a post on REDDIT with a young guy reminiscing about his nan's 'front room' that he was never allowed into. It was kept covered up ready for special visitors and not for him as a child. Now his nan has gone and so has her front room.

My front room had been knocked through and I do 90% of my shopping with a click of a button - it's just progress.

BTW how much did those catalogues cost?

Click of a Button?  Crawford you soooooo old fashioned! Its all done on that little phone fingy nowadays!
         Change. it is indeed. Faster than ever it seems with the advances of AI and  Chat GPT the pace is accelerating. We are all DOOMED it is clear.
         On t'other hand the surfeit of choice is boring. Ebay has just got too much, let alone Etsy. The romance has gone from collecting! But collecting is still there. Look at all the things that the 'Influencers' flog!
On t'other t;oher! hand we have the excitement of the 'Art' forms from new technology. Any thougts on NFTs. Which seem to give the Rights to Own a pixillated image in the Cloud. Next big thing? Or just another Con game?
On even a further hand! Do you know anybody who still owns a Kindle? Old fashioned paperbacks have come back into fashion. Or Alexa and Google Dot. These were the next big thing a few years ago. We were all going to be ordering vast amounts of stuff just by talking to Alexa. The smart home at al. But it just did not happen. Most people just treat Alexa et al as a media player now. Amazon and Google invested zillions in these smart devices and the technology to back them up. Now they are cutting back sharply on that investment.
The Times They Are a Changin...And the Final Answer as to where it all ends is still Blowin In the Wind!

Re-reading the opening post from croker he talks about the right pot to come along. I see a lot of right pots but not at the right price. Most of the things I really want are one of a kinds, buy it or never see it again.

I use Alexa for turning all my living room lights on / off, timing my coffee, playing Magic Radio, doing sums and adding things to me shopping list or reminder / Calendar. Never been late for a TEAMS call since I had Alexa. Ohh and it announces when someone is approaching my front door or if the doorbell rings - linked to blink doorbell. I highly recommend both alexa and blink - not the best doorbell but cheap and cheerful

Hi crawford, I think you slightly misunderstood my opening post ,i wasn't actually referring to pots when i said you have to wait for the right piece to come along but rather other fields of collecting, my point was that a collection of studio pots could be formed very quickly with the large amount of material that appears on the market but in many other areas of collecting things move a little slower and you might have to wait a long time for the right object to come along due to the scarcity.

Scarcity and cost. If money is no object then you could build a large collection very quickly

I only really buy three types of things, mainline collecting is on hold.

1) Going dirt cheat and I know it's undervalued - can make a profit tomorrow. Buy.
2) Takes my fancy must have - rare/unusual/quirky won't see again - will have to pay ££££
3) Small curiosity, not expensive, trivial buy at a few pounds. Fun.

22 Crawford St. wrote:I only really buy three types of things, mainline collecting is on hold.

1) Going dirt cheat and I know it's undervalued - can make a profit tomorrow. Buy.
2) Takes my fancy must have - rare/unusual/quirky won't see again - will have to pay ££££
3) Small curiosity, not expensive, trivial buy at a few pounds. Fun.

- No.2 for me is usually at the Ceramics Fairs

4) Buying as a gift, in the hopes you'll get it back some day
5) Buying on Own Art once a year

4) Is a rarity for me, I do buy little gifts and given many a pair of Briglin Sunflower goblets away to people who have no studio at all just Ikea, but I read here once someone who bought a new studio teapot for a friend, it would not have been cheap and put a lot of thought into it. Got unwraped and the person just said 'thanks' and stuck straight it in a cupboard next to the John Lewis. No understanding or appreciation. A pot barbarian in other words, just gifted a piece of art to a barbarian. Poor pot.

5) ?? What's Own Art?

22 Crawford St. wrote:Re-reading the opening post from croker he talks about the right pot to come along. I see a lot of right pots but not at the right price. Most of the things I really want are one of a kinds, buy it or never see it again.

I use Alexa for turning all my living room lights on / off, timing my coffee, playing Magic Radio, doing sums and adding things to me shopping list or reminder / Calendar. Never been late for a TEAMS call since I had Alexa. Ohh and it announces when someone is approaching my front door or if the doorbell rings - linked to blink doorbell. I highly recommend both alexa and blink - not the best doorbell but cheap and cheerful

But do you use it to buy anything from Amazon? Which was the Real Reason why  Amazon developed it. If you do not, you are getting a virtually free ride on a massive amount of Technology which has been costing Amazon a fortune to maintain. As has everybody else!  Hence Amazon has been cutting back greatly on Alexa and the Tech involved. It has sacked many thousands, and a significant number of those have been used to develop and maintain Alexa.

22 Crawford St. wrote:

5) ?? What's Own Art?

Interest free Finance at the Galleries. Used to be if you bought a minimum of £100 worth of ceramics but I think now the minimum is £250, and the payments are spread over 10 months https://www.ownart.org.uk/

Nah, don't use it to buy stuff, I'm more careful, need to compare prices but do buy stuff from Amazon. Amazon prices are odd, if you buy something from morrisons often the price goes up. I'm thinking they add a few quid on your price hoping to catch you with repeat business and you not bothering to check the price. Example: Pernoid bottle £16.50 next week £20+ - it's now on Amazon at 17.50. very strange.

I do use Keepa extension to track recent Amazon prices. As graph at the bottom.