John Ward

They were saying that 30-40 years ago when the Big London auction houses started including studio pottery in their auctions. Sothebys, Christies, Phillips, and Bonhams all had specialist Studio Pottery Auctions.
That all collapsed after the financial crash of 2008-09, and the auction market for studio pottery has never really recovered. Its woken up a bit in the past few years, but nothing like it was.

hi, phipot,In my years as an antiques dealer i have seen a number of price crashes not always linked to the financial market, some have recovered some never will , fashion often dictates many of these downturns in the market.

Indeed, fashion comes, fashion goes. It seems that the Internet has just made it change faster!

hi, i have take pics of some of my ward pots but i am unsure how upload them any tips?

3 of my ward pots, sorry  about the doubles but i am new to this  loading lark, more to follow

Those look scrumptious .The Black and green looks especially interesting. Not a style I have seen much before. Any idea on dates? Can you give us any idea of what size they are?
Is that a sideboard you have them on? Brave you if they are! Lucky you especially, to have those to look at all the time.
Much envy here

hi, the largest black and green pot is 14.5 inches and the other two about half that ,we always keep our pots on pieces of furniture or open shelves ,we have had breakages in the past but thankfully only john bedding , corser and mary rich, all were demolished by a mad welsh corgi, i am not sure of the chronology of wards  pots so i find dating them difficult.

This is an interesting shape rarely seen. 26.7 cms high.

 

Another interesting shape, 22.5 cms high.

two more of my john ward pots that might be of interest

hi, having trouble sending pics at the moment

ward pots

You have a super collection of John Ward's! Those look a bit earlier in his career. Which is your favoirite?

hi, i don't have favourite piece but the blue one has the least appeal to me ,I have a larger black and white piece that i quite like but that lives at my daughters house at present.I hope to buy one of his green striped pots this year if one becomes available at the right price.

hi, just seen a 24cm ward plain pot fetch £480 in sworders, this pot was in a previous sale at a higher estimate ,i alerted them to the damage(a crack) and they then changed the condition report and photos.I don't understand why anybody would buy a cracked pot for around £600 with premium.

The crack is pretty self evident from the online photos as well. The audience they get for their bi-weekly Interiors sale tends to be more Trade orientated. Somebody bidding on impulse in the room thinking they were getting a bargain and not doing an inspection? Anything is restorable of course, but looking at that crack it would be an expensive business.

https://hepworthwakefield.org/news/artist-qa-john-ward/

This is a link to the Wakefield Art gallery and a question and answer session with John Ward. A bit short, but very interesting

Hi Philpot , Thanks for posting that link, i had already seen it but it was worth another look, i think Ward was influenced by Coper more than any of the other students he taught and his interest in ancient Egyptian pots and Cyclades shows.

bit of a slack day so i thought i would post a few of my pots ,i think these three make a nice group, tallest pot18 inches . I think prices for Ward pots have levelled off at the moment, so now might possibly be a good time to buy, at Partridge's lot 337 the green striped job looks nice but it has been around a bit showing at Partridge's for the third time in two years ( now with a reserve of almost half of what it made two years ago), the b/w pieces are still the most expensive .

The bigger green stripy one is unusual. More minimalistic in stripes than most. I suspect it displays very nicely.Prices have definitely calmed, down on John Ward. But then given the economic storm in progress I suspect many people are being careful. With Lyon & Turnbull and Partridge auctions having a number of John Ward in the coming week it will an interesting test of the market

The annoying thing about John Ward is the paucity of information on him. I came across a very interesting for page article about him in Ceramic 96 November/December 1985.
He worked on as many as six or eight pieces at a time. Firing in a electric kiln once a week with an average of 5 pots a time. Its a fascinating four page piece, with descriptions of his working methods and formulas of his body recipe and glaze recipes.

hi, Philpot, I always think of John Ward as one of the quiet potters , he rarely gives interviews and seems to shun publicity unlike a number of other's and consequently there is very little information on him .He had sell out shows but to my knowledge has never had a retrospective, perhaps the Hepworth gallery might remedy this when they get hold of the promised Bacon collection. Thanks for the tip about Ward in the Ceramic review i will try and obtain a copy. Yes we do seem to be heading to some sort of recession and this will probably have some effect on pot prices .

He had a show back in 1985 at Contemporary Ceramics.