Richard Batterham

On no!  Yet another of the great Modern British Potters depart us. Indeed he was one of the Very BEST OF THE Greats.

                RIP RICHARD BATTERHAM

Sad to say there often seems to be a market uplift on the death of an artist. Potters being no exception . Alan Wallwork and John Maltby prices went up sharply, and have now reined back somewhat.
Batterham was a production potter of course, over a very long period of consistently brilliant quality. So there must be quite a bit of his work around. I will be interesting to see just how much of that comes on to the market.
To me, there is just such quintessential English quality about his work.

A fairly standard teapot with 'possible frits' went for £270.50 on Ebay yesteday (16 September) with 31 bids. That's two or three times what it would have got a year or two ago. Such are the weird ways of collecting!

Teapots were never something that I bought, as I have always had difficulty in selling them no matter who made them. However, since he stopped potting I have found that there have been avid collectors of his teapots for years and most of the collectors use them. It generally seems that it is these collectors that want more and they have really been willing to pay that sort of price for the last couple of years.

I understand that the V@A are giving Richard Batterham an exhibition from  the 26th November, i think must be  quite an honour and must cement his reputation as one of the best (if not the best) exponents of this type of pottery. I have no doubt that an exhibition such as this will cause more collectors to look at his work afresh and prices will rise.

Thanks for the heads up on that Croker, it should be interesting. The only trouble is of course is that it is going to be in the Ceramics Room 146 on Level 4. Which always seems to be the quietest part of the Museum when I have ever visited the V&A! For studio pottery fans only one suspects....

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/19/richard-batterham-obituary

A very good obituary of Richard Batterham in the Guardian on 19 September. Well worth reading.

Hi Philpot, I doubt that i will be able to visit the V@A to see the exhibition but i am hoping for a decent illustrated catalogue showing examples of Batterham's output across his career. You mention the quietness in the ceramics gallery at the V@A ,well i am a regular visitor at the Sainsbury centre in Norwich and it's always noticeable how quiet the end of the gallery showing the stunning collection of Coper pots is, it seems that very few visitors are interested in ceramics.

This is it crowded.

A couple of Richard's pots made while at Bryanston School where he began potting under the tutelage of Don Potter at the age of thirteen.


Not small pieces but from his own collection when on show at CAA in 2016.

Some pots that he made at the Leach Pottery in the late 1950s. Again from his own collection.

A general photograph of his 2016 CAA exhibition.

..... and another of his bottles.

A final view of the 2016 CAA exhibition.


I stayed at the exhibition far longer than I imagined I would and certainly longer than any other studio pottery exhibition.

It was really an art installation and the only other similar thing that had a same effect on me was the collection of Pierre Soulages paintings at the musée Fabre in Montpellier that I stumbled upon after seeing a Picasso exhibition there.

Indeed that was a great exhibition. I still have the leaflet/catalogue from that exhibition. While Richard Batterham was much admired in his own lifetime, he never really had the wider exposure in terms of exhibitions that say David Leach had. No doubt through his own wishes. But it was a pity in a way.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/richard-batterham-studio-potter
The V&A have a special exhibition on Richard Batterham which opens 28 November. There is also going to be a book on Richard Batterham published by the V & A available March next year.
The exhibition promises to be something special, Over the last two years of his life Richard was planning this exhibition with the V&A with many of the pots being his own personal collection of his work which he had kept from sale because he considered them the best of his work.
It should a Must See exhibition, and a great tribute to a great potter.

philpot wrote:https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/richard-batterham-studio-potter
The V&A have a special exhibition on Richard Batterham which opens 28 November. There is also going to be a book on Richard Batterham published by the V & A available March next year.
           The exhibition promises to be something special, Over the last two years of his life Richard was planning this exhibition with the V&A with many of the pots being his own personal collection of his work which he had kept from sale because he considered them the best of his work.
            It should a Must See exhibition, and a great tribute to a great potter.

The pots from his own personal collection will be the same ones that were in the exhibition at the CAA in 2016*, I imagine so I doubt if there'll be anything new. However, I am delighted that the V&A are saluting him in this way.

Also great to see that a couple of his tall bottles from John Driscoll's collection went for over £20,000 earlier today too.

* see my post below.

The V & A display will give you the time to just gaze, inspect, admire and absorb them. I always find that Batterham pots sort of creep up on you in a quiet way. The more you look at them, the more you admire them. You could not really do that in the shop atmosphere of the CAA.
              That £20,000 for the two large vases in the Driscoll sale was exceptional. A beautiful matched pair which obviously ups the price. But until quite recently that sort of vase was going for a hammer price of £600-£800.

I have been in contact with one of my old customers about the John Driscoll collection in general (He contacted me). He went to view and has a large number of Batterham pots in his own collection. He thought the two large ones in the sale weren't that good in his opinion and, as I didn't view in person, I couldn't really argue with him.

I did ask him about the pots in the V & A exhibition and he thinks that there will be others not at the CAA show, as Richard didn't include his own pots in that show that could be compared with the ones that were for sale. Therefore my remark above was almost certainly incorrect.

That is an interesting point Studio. Which illustrates of course that you can only tell a certain amount by a photo. Pots being physical things, you can tell so much more by just handling them

Great that there will be a book on Batterham ,i was hoping for a catalogue but a book is even better. As you say photos can be deceiving but i can't say that i have ever see a bad Batterham piece, the textures of pots in particular rarely show well, .I do hope we are not going to see a sudden deluge of Batterham's in the salerooms from hopeful vendors on the back of this result.

Ebay is where the 'Batterhams' come up. With 25 sold in the past few months with an espresso Mug going for £155. Two large teapots for £450 and £637, and big plates going for £250 plus. Now whether all those are Batterhams is an interesting question!

hi, I must admit i don't follow Ebay much and my only real experiences of Batterham are his authenticated larger pieces at auctions , if prices rise i suppose it must be relatively easy for a good stoneware potter to make some passable copies of the smaller items and sell through Ebay, although I would imagine that Batterham being a production potter there must be a large number of the more domestic pieces out there. I understand that David Attenborough is big fan of Batterham pots.