Pots in the Attic

What are the reasons for buying pots / vases etc. , and then storing them away out of sight in boxes , there was a mention of TRUE collectors in another thread , if you collect and then pack away what's true about that ? these items were surely meant to be seen , not hoarded like some sort of prize possesions , I can understand a couple of reasons , maybe you are a dealer is one , another might be they are stashed away as an investment , if it's simply not enough room then that's a pity because there is no pleasure to be had out of the pieces stuffed in a box , it's also said we are buying pieces because we love them - regardless of the maker , YEAH ! right that's not really the case is it , when there is so much hoo ha over some ID's , it's human nature to want to know the maker and value , I often buy a piece not knowing the maker and try to find out later , sometimes a pleasant surprise , I have never bought a piece to COLLECT because of the name , I have bought a name in order to re-sell.

I agree Ed, my purchases are always based on cost/re-sale value.

Often collectors can't afford to buy the big ticket pieces so they buy bargains in the hope of making a profit to fund the pieces they really want but often they don't get around to selling them and they end up in the loft.
I started off as an investor,I intended to keep items for about 10 years and then cash in on the price increase.

big ed wrote:, it's also said we are buying pieces because we love them - regardless of the maker , YEAH ! right that's not really the case is it , when there is so much hoo ha over some ID's , it's human nature to want to know the maker and value ,

Case in point 230649720117 surely the name is selling this and not the item itself

possibly a bad photo,it doesn't look like Guy's usual quality

I have items in my cabinet, when I'm bored of them they either go to the charity shop or in the attic usually.

Can't look at it all at once and I would not want to either

We're all different tho.

Davee wrote:

big ed wrote:, it's also said we are buying pieces because we love them - regardless of the maker , YEAH ! right that's not really the case is it , when there is so much hoo ha over some ID's , it's human nature to want to know the maker and value ,

Case in point 230649720117 surely the name is selling this and not the item itself

I see what you mean Dave , not the most appealing piece in the world is it ? if there was no name on the base at a push it would get 50p at a car boot , having said that, funnily enough I got a guy sydenham at a car boot for 50p and got about £40 for it .

dantheman wrote:Often collectors can't afford to buy the big ticket pieces so they buy bargains in the hope of making a profit to fund the pieces they really want but often they don't get around to selling them and they end up in the loft.
I started off as an investor,I intended to keep items for about 10 years and then cash in on the price increase.

Dan , have you punted any of your items that you bought 10 years ago ? if so, did things go as you hoped ?

I only started buying pottery 6 years ago but most of the early buys were commonplace,cheaper pots so I sold them last year in large lots,I made a better profit than I would have had I put the money into a pension

I certainly agree they are a safer bet than pension schemes and you get to look at them for a while as well

They can still lose money as trends change, is it easy to be lured into the thinking "it won't go down in value".

As long as people realise this and "buy right" then chances are you will be rewarded when you come to "cash in".

Worse case, if you only buy what you like, you end up with a lot of pretty pots

I started buying ceramics 15 years ago, some has gone up, a fair bit the bottom has dropped out of, but I bought it right, so don't stand to lose money.

There are a couple of potters I buy for the name I collect them as they were local and I'm interested in anything I can find these I dont resell('yet) one his highly profitable the other is historically important but not very commercial for the moment.

This is the key , If you have a good eye and buy at a reasonable price then your chances are better , spotting trends helps a little but are dodgy, the fat lava thing for instance was a godsend to me , hardly anybody knew or cared about them a few years ago , now prices have shot up and will continue for the better pieces , Pick a studio potter who's work you admire and who knows what will happen , at the worst as you say potty , you'll have some nice wares to look at .

oh and the Bertancellos I bought to put on the forum thought I might grow to like them as I often do when I buy a pot a bit on impulse and a bit for investment but I can't get rid off them now perhaps english ebay ( I admit they were not the best examples)

I think the Bertoncellos will have their day Paul , especially the Roberto Rigon ones and the more colourful, they haven't had any exposure YET

ok Ed I'll hang on on to them for now

Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes

We have a loft-, garage-, and shed-full of my pots, prints, books and ,of course, a large monkey- and ape-related collection, and of my wife's vast amounts of costume jewellery, ladies vintage hats and hatboxes, cruet sets, match strikers, unicorns, vintage powder compacts, and a lot more besides. However, it was all consigned to the loft only when we moved from a rather large, 3-storey Victorian town house where most of it could be displayed (increasingly so as the kids gradually flew the nest and we could re-deploy their rooms), to a modern 2-bed bungalow.
We try to regularly rotate what is displayed, but there's just so much stuff, and space is comparatively limited, so we are slowly thinning out the collections, and more importantly have agreed (in the way that most married couples agree, ie it's a given that I'm wrong and we take it from there ) not to bring in any more pieces until we are back to a manageable amount; apart from birthdays, xmas and anniversaries that is, or if we come across a piece that we'd genuinely regret not buying. Strangely, Wendy has managed to excuse herself from this rule as her collections are "mainly small things,and one more (compact, necklace, striker, etc. etc.) doesn't take up a lot of extra space"
So we certainly never bought with the sole intention of stashing it all away, that came about mainly due to the fact that we were both struggling with the stairs at the old house.

I have always bought pots purely for the pot itself, and not on the maker (even my Pear Tree ((PTP)) collection started this way, although I now try to buy every piece of this that I come across, so have a couple of more recent buys that I'm not overly keen on), and as a result the vast majority of my studio / handmade pottery is by unknown potters, including quite a lot of amateur work and pieces that were probably made at school or college, but just appeal to me in a way that mass-produced stuff rarely manages to.
Of course, if we do see pieces by the more 'popular' makers at a bargain price then we'll buy them, but only to sell-on, whereas for my own collections it was simply a case of 'do I like it?' and 'can I afford it?'.
In fact, the only other area (apart from the PTP) where I do have specific criteria and still buy regularly is the books. I have a large 'general' library which includes a lot of primatology and anthropology, and is about 99% non-fiction but I also specifically collect 1st edition hardbacks by David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, and Richard Leakey. Apart from those 4 though, my criteria is the same as the rest of my stuff; if it looks interesting, and is affordable, I'll buy it. If it also happens to be a 1st ed. H/B, that's a bonus.

300580506675

220819298290

a couple of Pear tree pottery items for your perusal PP

Very interesting to hear about other's collecting.

I end up keeping almost everything I find. Simply because I just can't bear to part with it. One of my first finds was a Peter Dick plate. Quite an old one with a beautiful green/petrol lustre glaze. I paid 50p and like a fool sold it for a tenner or so. I have never seen another like it and regret it badly now.

I'd happily pay twice that now for it back... if anyone has it....?

I know a gentleman who has been collecting pieces for 25 years and has now decided to sell. I am hoping he will let me see the collection before it goes overseas... Especially the Bernard leach pieces.
He is getting the collection ready for one buyer who is travelling a good distance to come here and buy.. He has had it packed away for a good number of years, but is still able to remember alot of the pieces.

he might like to add pics to the forum or share his knowledge...

I think this man was a true collector who purchased his pots with great care and thought.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/w-a-ismay-728809.html

by big ed Yesterday at 5:26 pm
.300580506675
220819298290
a couple of Pear tree pottery items for your perusal PP.

Cheers Ed, much appreciated.
I'm not overly enthusiastic about the shoe but I'll keep an eye on the pot. I don't think the picture does it any justice at all, it's far too dark (the greens especially look very dull and flat, but judging by my own pieces they should almost 'glow'.
I haven't got one with a flared top like that anyway, so I may take a punt and hope that it just needs a good clean (and better photographer).

Davee wrote:I think this man was a true collector who purchased his pots with great care and thought.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/w-a-ismay-728809.html

Bill Ismay was indeed a true collector, who lived in a two up/two down terraced house in Wakefield with very little room that wasn't occupied by pots. I remember the potter, Ursula Mommens, telling me that she was arranging a visit to Bill's on the telephone and he suggested that they go out for a pub lunch to which she replied that she was happy with a snack at his place. However, they did go to the pub because he only had one space at his table to eat, with pots in boxes taking up the rest of the table and nowhere to move them to.

I felt very privileged when Bill made the journey down from Yorkshire to South East London to buy from my early exhibitions, as he was "the studio pottery collector" and by then in his late 80s. As his tastes included the potters, Phil Rogers, Jim Malone, Ursula, Svend Bayer and Nic Collins (seen above with Bill at one of my exhibitions in 1999) he was a regular face at the front of the queue on Private View Days. In fact one of the last pots he would have bought was from my Mike Dodd exhibition in the late autumn before he died. At the time he was in hospital and I had to send photographs, followed by the pot he chose from these.