Bowl, HC mark, Hans Coper

Hi, I recently found what I believe might be a Hans Coper. There is a 9 digit serial code incised along the base, I can take better photos to decipher if this number is helpful.

Is there anything you can tell me about this bowl?

Thanks

Thanks for posting this interesting bowl ,more photos would be good also the size.

With Hans Coper, provenance is everything. It is the style that he made in the early 1950's, when he was just starting out. He made very few of them, This a link to a picture in our Hans Coper thread which I took which is similar. recently.https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t22902p50-hans-coper?highlight=coper

Is it marked with his signature? Without both provenance and proper signature mark it would be very difficult indeed tp prove it was a Hans Coper He has been copied.

A link to the national collection at the V and A Museum in London with a bowl in the same style

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/bowl-hans-coper

A link to a similar and Coper at Phillips auctioneers in London. Note the very strong provenance!

https://www.phillips.com/detail/hans-coper/UK050321/4

And another at Sothebys in 2017.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/made-in-britain-ii-l17145/lot.129.html

croker wrote:Thanks for posting this interesting bowl ,more photos would be good also the size.

Here are a few more photos. It’s roughly 6” diameter and 3” tall.

That mark does not look right. In all his marks like that the H and C are closely touching each other. Equally the size of the actual is too small for the pieces like that have been on the market. The mark is also completely unlike anything he used in the 1950's.

I agree that provenance is most important when authenticating any work of art but not the deciding factor, the size of the bowl is not important as there are a few coper pieces that have turned up over the years around the 5-6 inches, i bid on a small dish in 2018 , the engraved numerals are probably a museum collection number but this could be a double bluff, personally i don't really see a problem with the mark other than it being slightly off centre. This piece really needs to be handled by someone who is familiar with Copers work.

philpot wrote:That mark does not look right. In all his marks like that the H and C are closely touching each other. Equally the size of the actual  is too small for the pieces like that have been on the market. The mark is also completely unlike anything he used in the 1950's.

Thanks Phil, though it seems some of his marks are touching, there are many examples where they are not. I found a good example in the last link here that is like mine. I can only find two bowls with the same shape, and one that is similar with the smaller size. I would be interested to know what the serial number might mean? I may take this to be evaluated by an auction house.

Here are some links I found after looking at your examples, it seems similar was made around 1952 specifically - though I wish I could see the mark on the bottoms of these:

Edit…as a new member I can’t post links for 7 days. See bonhams dot com/auctions/14818/lot/169/

invaluable dot com/auction-lot/hans-coper-17-c-cf6b5b03e2

artnet dot com/artists/hans-coper/early-bowl-GQpdanrTIuIvRWLa_WG5nA2

waterman co dot uk/artists/69-hans-coper/works/5330-hans-coper-large-dish-1953/

maaklondon dot com/insights/artists/hans-coper/hans-coper-impressed-hc-seal

Looks right 

You are looking at a very specialist subject for valuation. You might well do better sending pictures to an auctioneer that specialises in Studio Pottery/Design rather than a local one. Most do rough online valuations.