Alan Wallwork

In 1967 Michael Casson published a book Called POTTERY IN BRITAIN TODAY which is Full of studio pottery. Images 63-70 in the book are of Alan Wallwork's work, which presumably is mostly from Greenwich.  There are some absolutely stunning pieces there. In particular there are two group photos where the big pieces are over 36 inches high. These are some of the best of his work I have seen. The trouble is there seems very little of the Greenwich work around nowadays. Anyways, I take back those comments I made on the W work Studio! Mea Culpa!



             As a footnote. The first 70 images in this book are on hand building It is quite notable how a similar style trend run through the work of many potters illustrated here. Dan Arbeid, Ian Auld, Gordon Baldwin, Briglin, Graham Burr, Waistel Cooper, Ruth Duckworth, Louis Hanssen, Colin Kellam, Gillian Lowndes, Bryan Newman, Eileen Nisbet, John Reeve, Bernard Rooke and even Helen Pincombe. All have overflowing bits and pieces that you can see reflected in the work illustrated.
           Many of the these potters were probably Greater London based at the time, so there may well have been quite an interchange of ideas.
         

Having spoken to several potters, who trained in London at that time, including Alan, the consensus seems to be that the teacher/lecturer, Kenneth Clark (of tile fame), and his young technical assistant, Gordon Baldwin, were behind much of this.

The book below covers this area in some detail.

NaomiM wrote:Alan Wallwork’s official website has been updated and it’s excellent. The section where he reminisces about puff pastry to separate the different layers of clay, and the disastrous use of self-raising flour is very funny

Joe, who runs the site, has been telling me that he wants to totally re-vamp the site as soon as he can and so links might change. However, I am not sure that he has the energy to do this - I wouldn't have.

Just to point out that there is a third mark. Where a piece has been scratched W post firing. I have one and sent photos to Joe who kindly confirmed it with Alan. If memory serves me right Joe said he also asked Alan about an unmarked piece he had bought and before he cold do anything Alan had scratched W into the base  [I think that's right ..Joe?]

Not forgetting of course the AW marks that had been crossed through with an Angle Grinder by Alan Wallwork himself! There were a spate of these at auction some years ago, and they still occasionally come up on Ebay where the seller does not fully describe the item.

Yes that is a standard sign in pottery. Still a valid piece by the maker but just sold as a second and faulty piece. Many of Alan's seconds have firing cracks where they are not supposed to be, he could have destroyed them but most potteries needed to be practical and sell them - even Poole had a seconds area I believe?

22 Crawford St. wrote:Just to point out that there is a third mark. Where a piece has been scratched W post firing. I have one and sent photos to Joe who kindly confirmed it with Alan. If memory serves me right Joe said he also asked Alan about an unmarked piece he had bought and before he cold do anything Alan had scratched W into the base  [I think that's right ..Joe?]

There might be a few items like that around but I suspect very few. I bought a cylinder from a charity shop that was more colourful than most but unmarked, as in all potteries things get missed when you're working quickly. I sent an image to Alan (I think he must have been in France at the time) and he just supplied me with a signed note added to the image, which went with the pot when I sold it ..... to Joe.

22 Crawford St. wrote:Yes that is a standard sign in pottery. Still a valid piece by the maker but just sold as a second and faulty piece. Many of Alan's seconds have firing cracks where they are not supposed to be, he could have destroyed them but most potteries needed to be practical and sell them - even Poole had a seconds area I believe?  

He only "signed them" with an angle grinder through the AW when he was selling up in Dorset and moving to France. These were sold by Alan himself from a stall on Greenwich Market on several weekends over the spring/summer of 2004.

The perfect ones during the clear out were sold through me at the Harlequin Gallery.

Also during the clear out he came across some old shapes that had been left unglazed/unfired at the back of his pottery, which he glazed and fired in 2004. These were included with new pots in his last exhibition before going to France at the Harlequin Gallery in October/November 2004.

Sure you are correct as usual SP. But it does show that some items slipped though and are unmarked as usual and just because someone has scratched a W on the base  does not make it a fake.

I thought it might be useful to show some images of a pot that I sold on eBay earlier this year and then explain a little about the process.




You will note that this has the angle grinder mark through the AW that Alan did before selling on Greenwich Market in 2004.

When making and firing these Double Gourd forms, Alan only stuck them together with glaze and most came apart during the firing. His next step would be stick them together with glaze and re-fire. That often worked.

If it didn't then it was the "Araldite treatment", as is the case here.

I don't know but suspect that at the time these were made and stuck in this way, some might have been sold without the cross through the AW. I say that because he got the idea to use Araldite from Gordon Baldwin when he was at Goldsmiths College. At that time Baldwin was making tall sculptural pieces that were too big to fit in the kilns available. Therefore he fired them, for example, in three sections and stuck them together with Araldite. Therefore Alan would have seen Araldite as just part of the making process.

It was only during the clear out at Whitty Down Farm that the angle grinder came into use for damaged, slightly damaged or what he considered boring or not quite acceptable items.

When selling this piece on eBay I explained this and so the buyer knew exactly what he was getting.

this orb is of superb quality but still suffered the grinder. I think it was a cash flow thing

dantheman wrote:

this orb is of superb quality but still suffered the grinder. I think it was a cash flow thing

It could have been that I decided that it wasn't quite good enough. Although I wasn't allowed to use the angle grinder, I was part of the selection process on the "undecided" pieces. Basically, everything had to go or be dumped.

Hi studio,  interesting your comments on the use of araldite in studio pottery ,i realise that you already know , but other members might not be aware of the epoxy resin use in studio pottery , the most famous potter being Hans Coper who used araldite and steel rods   to glue many pieces together also Martin smith who used it freely and i guess a number of other potters as well.

Does the addition of the S on the base make this a rarer piece?

Very many thanks

The market for Alan Wallwork seems to have calmed down a lot now.
Interestingly the vast majority of Wallwork items on Ebay are the W marked items. With mostly asking prices within the £200-£300 range.
Yet nearly all of the Sold prices for the W marked items are under £100.

There was only one bid for that vase similar to mine* and it went for about £60.

*Not by Wallwork so moved to https://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t3681-sonia-sjoholm-assistant-to-jon-cheney-porthleven (Admin)

It's mainly one seller on ebay right now and as you say, the asking prices do seem high. I can't imagine anybody paying them.

There were some AW organic pieces on the Saleroom a few weeks ago that fetched decent money. I recall one went for over a grand.

cycladelic how does the insurance work on Exhibitions?

22 Crawford St. wrote:cycladelic how does the insurance work on Exhibitions?

I give them values and they cover it all while it's in the museum.

So have you had anything broken/smashed/stolen? in past exhibitions? Just transporting ceramics is always a risk

I came across a Devon Guild Leaflet which they gave out with the works of Alan Wallwork's they sold. There is a paragraph about his studio post 1989 in Roccombe. It sounds as though it was written by Alan Wallork himself.


        ' The eventfulness and companionship of working with a team of assistants re over, his days are more tranquil but with the solace of Radio 3. He works in much the same ways. He makes slabbed, coiled and thrown forms with much texturing and piercing, the latter because clay is so easy and enjoyable to pierce - and he likes to see the light sparkle through the perforations. He makes many small pieces formed directly in the hand from a perfect sphere, two 'pinch' pots joined rim to rim then reformed in a variety of ways. He likes forms that invite touch, that have an enjoyable weight and texture.
          He fires by propane to temperatures in excess of 1300C in a reducing atmosphere. His forms, colours and textures have an affinity with those of the coast and countryside of Dorset: the cool, bleached colours and worn, weathered surfaces of the seashore, the sensuous swelling  forms and warmth of seedcases, fruits and shells.'

         The above is taken verbatim from the last two paragraphs of a double sided single sheet.