What do you do with your Pottery

Naff title I know , but , when you buy a piece from say a charity shop , car boot , fair , ebay etc , is it because you see a profit in reselling? , or is it for display ? , could it be just a curio that caught your eye that will be stashed away never to be seen again in your lifetime ? or is it a fabulous piece , a bargain and you'll never part with it no matter what ? I cannot understand buying and storing , I don't mind the fact some folks buy stuff that doesn't appeal to others and display , .....that's fair enough each to their own , but why buy and store ? I just don't get it , some museums are guilty of this crime , paintings & works locked away for yrs while other museums have Eff all to show , they should share ( at a cost obviously) so that generations can view the lots available , some curators are a bit up their own bums imo .

i fall into either buying for myself and have it on display or buy to sell for a profit and put it away until either i put it on ebay or into auction . cannot understand people who have box loads of stuff that will never get displayed unless they are hoping for the price to go up and then sell it but then run the risk of damaging items.

I've always liked buying stuff from charity shops/flea markets etc I don't like new stuff.

This last 12 months I only work 2 days a week so lots of time on my hands.

I had intended on buying and selling to make some pocket money on e bay but I haven't got round to joining.

Living on my own I suppose I can fill every room up and no ones going to complain

In winter I will probably sort the stuff out

My daughter said 'you better sort it out otherwise I'll have to when you drop dead'

I said just get a skip

I kinda do the same to be honest , I don't have anything boxed away though and if it was it'd be skipware

I have hundreds of pots in boxes, my original idea was to keep them for around 10 years then sell when prices were high but I soon saw that my plan was flawed and decided to buy pieces when they were under priced and then sell quickly for a good mark up.
Unfortunately while buying all this pottery I became an avid collector who didn't want to share his toys.

Dan, I think that I'm at the beginning of the process you describe... Its like a fix when I get a new pot now.

Its a good job I've never tried hard drugs, if this is what I'm like with pots in such a short space of time

the similarity to drugs is quite surprising.
Collecting starts with the odd piece now and again when visiting an antiques fair or studio pottery but then you meet some dealers, get introduced to a convenient and regular supply such as Ebay and before you know it you're on 10 a week with big binges when you go to ceramics fairs and you're on first name terms with all the postmen and couriers in your area!!

Dear Dan your scaring me now.

Truthfully with so much time on my hands I have to go pot hunting 3 days a week.

Only second hand shops and the like.

recently, I was chatting to a friend about my 'finding pots' addiction, and said when I was a kid I used to spend my pocket money on lucky bags rather than the choc bars etc. Its about the surprise.

I don't know whether I make sense there but I always wanted a metal detector.

Maybe that can be my new hobby

dantheman wrote:the similarity to drugs is quite surprising.
Collecting starts with the odd piece now and again  when visiting an antiques fair or studio pottery but then you meet some dealers, get introduced to a convenient and regular supply such as Ebay and before you know it you're on 10 a week with big binges when you go to ceramics fairs and you're on first name terms with all the postmen and couriers in your area!!

I'm aiming to become a dealer myself...that's where the money is.

I had a metal detector about 40 yrs ago , it lasted about two weeks , one can only have so many ring pulls you know .
Dan - the similarity to drug addiction you describe is spot on , we'll get found out one day and end up in nick with ceramicists , potters and porcelain addicts offering cheap Sylvacs n' sh*t

Ed, after 40 years surely metal detectors can now tell you which metal it is?

If not, I want one that Grommet has invented.

climberg64 wrote:

dantheman wrote:the similarity to drugs is quite surprising.
Collecting starts with the odd piece now and again  when visiting an antiques fair or studio pottery but then you meet some dealers, get introduced to a convenient and regular supply such as Ebay and before you know it you're on 10 a week with big binges when you go to ceramics fairs and you're on first name terms with all the postmen and couriers in your area!!

I'm aiming to become a dealer myself...that's where the money is.

If only dealing in pots was as profitable as dealing in pot.

zippy wrote:Ed, after 40 years surely metal detectors can now tell you which metal it is?

If not, I want one that Grommet has invented.

 
Watch The Detectorists BBC 4 tonight at 10pm.

I've been watching Studio, I think Mckenzie whatshisname is a very good actor and also the fellow who played Hitchcock. Its reminded me I need to find treasure

Iv'e been watching it , it's very good

dantheman wrote:the similarity to drugs is quite surprising.
Collecting starts with the odd piece now and again  when visiting an antiques fair or studio pottery but then you meet some dealers, get introduced to a convenient and regular supply such as Ebay and before you know it you're on 10 a week with big binges when you go to ceramics fairs and you're on first name terms with all the postmen and couriers in your area!!

It's that sense of well-being that comes over you, when you've had that pottery hit.

I used to get that but it takes a very special piece to send me there these days which is why I now sell more and buy fewer

Sounds like you need to increase the dose.

Hi everyone, first post, great looking forum.

At the moment I am buying Susie Cooper in as good condition as possible as an investment for the future, a few extra quid for daughters nest egg, though judging by some of the prices on ebay it is getting cheaper and cheaper!

One reason I buy is to use myself. Apart from collecting for my imagined display bookcase (on the things to do list) I like to use old china for normal every day use around the huse. IE why not have a beautiful pot to stack your pens instead of a plain metal job. A crystal pot for your cotton wool etc etc. My cat eats off an old shelley tea saucer and I have a few I use as ashtrays



I have a question though about crockery. I wouldnt eat off stained and crazed plates but are plates even pre 1950 in nice looking nick ok to eat off? I cant thnk why not. Same with cups.

Welcome to the forum.

I expect they're ok, although I doubt they'd stand up to a dishwasher, and may be quite fragile when washing up in the sink. I had some low fired Bourton on the Water ones which disintegrated in the sink.
The ones to avoid are brightly coloured Chinese ones, which I think have arsenic in the green colours.

zippy wrote:

Dear Dan your scaring me now.

Truthfully with so much time on my hands I have to go pot hunting 3 days a week.

Only second hand shops and the like.

recently, I was chatting to a friend about my 'finding pots' addiction, and said when I was a kid I used to spend my pocket money on lucky bags rather than the choc bars etc. Its about the surprise.

I don't know whether I make sense there but I always wanted a metal detector.

Maybe that can be my new hobby

Just reading through this thread again and it reminded me of this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uK92NYwBMts

One needs to be very careful who one hangs about with  

xx

Emma54 wrote:Hi everyone, first post, great looking forum.

At the moment I am buying Susie Cooper in as good condition as possible as an investment for the future, a few extra quid for daughters nest egg, though judging by some of the prices on ebay it is getting cheaper and cheaper!

One reason I buy is to use myself. Apart from collecting for my imagined display bookcase (on the things to do list) I like to use old china for normal every day use around the huse. IE why not have a beautiful pot to stack your pens instead of a plain metal job. A crystal pot for your cotton wool etc etc. My cat eats off an old shelley tea saucer and I have a few I use as ashtrays



I have a question though about crockery. I wouldnt eat off stained and crazed plates but are plates even pre 1950 in nice looking nick ok to eat off? I cant thnk why not. Same with cups.

Hi Emma,

Welcome and the good news is that you are not going to die using Susie Cooper ware or any other British pots for eating off and/or drinking from.

Many commercial tablewares do craze and may even crazed very early in their life because they were cooled slightly too quickly when leaving the kiln. These are fine as long as they are clean and even stain ones could be treated with a bleach solution and then rinsed and used.

In a former life I used to teach Food Hygiene to trainee chefs so do have some idea of what I'm talking about...................... or have I forgotten it all!  

P.S. You'll find that cats prefer studio pottery to factory wares given the choice.

If Memory serves me right, wasn't Midwinter's Stonehenge "Nasturtium" pattern
withdrawn, because the chemicals in the glazes in the flower design leached out,
on contact with some, probably acidic, foods. I'm guessing cadmium in the yellow,
or was it something in the red?

I've checked and it was cadmium, although there was no indication that I could find that it leeched out. It appears that it was just that in the early 1980's chemicals containing cadmium were banned from pottery used for food and the pattern was discontinued.

So it was in production for 8 years and old stock wasn't taken off the market. It is still available from replacement companies so it clearly can't have been seen as a health risk of any significance. It looks as if workers at Midwinter were the people who were at potential risk.

These days you need to eat liver and kidneys to get your cadmium dose.......................... and no, there is no such thing as Cadmium Diary Milk.