THE LEONARD AND ALISON SHURZ COLLECTION OCT 2020 AUCTION Adam Partridge

https://live.adampartridge.co.uk/m/view-auctions/catalog/id/208

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8790041/Britains-biggest-ceramics-collection-goes-sale-250-000-auctioneer-1-500-items.html



A vast two day auction of over 1000 Lots of American, Japanese, European and British studio pottery. The British items start from circa 570 and are in alphabetical order.  The British stuff is very interesting, collected from Art in Clay Hatfield, Oxford Ceramics Fair, Goldmark Gallery, Contemporary Ceramics London etc. over the past 10 years or so. Well worth a long perusal. One of the most varied , interesting, and largest collections of studio pottery to come up in some time.

undoubtedly the best auction I have ever seen

Probably not enough historical depth to be one of the best. Fascinating to see a very large individual collection tho. Mostly built up over the past ten years, with items purchased in 2019. Very big customers of Goldmark Gallery, as most of the Japanese and Asian pottery seems to have been bought from there. Equally their tastes in British studio pottery seems to have been very much guided by Goldmark, Lots of Nic Collins, Phil Rogers, Jim Malone, Mike Dodd, Jean Luc Gerard, Clive Bowen, Svend Bayer.....Goldmark potters one and all.
One suspects there are many bargains to be had. Especially in the American stuff. I hardly recognise any of those American potters names. Unless the Yanks participate in the first part, that stuff is gonna go dirt cheap. Some nice pottery there as well.

I will be bidding on several of the Yank pots, I get bored of just buying Brit and European ceramics

It's like a pot a week for ten years. 500+ pots. at £100 each that's £50k

I wonder how the estimates compare to the origional purchase price

Definitely priced to sell. There are pieces on there I’ve paid £50-£70 from a Gallery or potters websites, which they’ve put a starting price on of £10 and an estimate of £20-30.

I think I remember seeing little Leonard rushing around Hatfield, unless he was someone else that seemed to be fixed on buying quantity over a few quality pieces.

The estimates mean that many people, including myself, might bid who otherwise might not have bothered. That could mean some pieces might fly. However, there is so much miscellaneous stuff that, if you like it, then it ought to be yours at a fraction of the price it was bought for by the Shurzs.

I emailed the auctioneers a week ago to ask about viewing and collection of the pottery, they replied that I could only view a selection of pots and had to make an appointment by listing each lot.
They didn't answer my question about collection.
I recon their unprofessional response has saved me a couple of grand

I doubt they can answer the Collecton question at the moment. Boris is due to announce the latest regional lockdowns, and R is over 1, with 500,000 cases predicted by the middle of October at the current rate of new infections. We’ll probably be in a National Lockdown by then. Their packing & postal  service is quite good

if I was to  allow for postage costs, my bid would be below the guide price

Most auctioneers are doing collection by appointment only, in a 'Covid efficient manner' or such like words. The Macclesfield saleroom itself tho is quite a tight place on entrance.

This is a link to the digital catalogue of the collection. The photo on page 8 and 9 of a page turning catalogue is presumably of their living room. How did they ever move? The only comparison I can think of is the photos of Bill Ismay's collection in situ.

https://issuu.com/adampartridge/docs/ap_studio_ceramics_oct2020_v1.0?fr=sMDQ0MTE5NjE1OTY

philpot wrote:This is a link to the digital catalogue of the collection. The photo  on page 8 and 9 of a page turning  catalogue is presumably of their living room. How did they ever move? The only comparison I can think of is the photos of Bill Ismay's collection in situ.

https://issuu.com/adampartridge/docs/ap_studio_ceramics_oct2020_v1.0?fr=sMDQ0MTE5NjE1OTY

Bill's place was much more cluttered than that, as was the flat of Dayabandhu (Michael Evans), whose collection Maak have been selling.

I have viewed the sale online this morning and there are a number of absentee bids showing and so, for the auctioneers, the publicity seems to have done the trick.

Covid saved me a fortune today, I left no bids despite the wonderful pottery on offer

A lot of that American pottery looked fascinating, and there was very little in that first part of the auction that went over £100. But if you were thinking of reselling it, you would have found it difficult. Since moving to a bungalow we have virtually stopped buying pottery. We don't have any spare space anymore.
I will be fascinating to see what the British stuff does today. There is an awful lot of Mike Dodd there, and he has gone that well on Ebay lately.

Here isan auction closer to you Dan, Gaze's at Diss. Some interesting stuff there including a William Newland Bull and a Margi Hine sculptural piece, as well as a good deal more. Punchy estimates tho!

One of our members lives close to Gaze's, he picks up some very nice bargains there

Two small Richard Batterham boxes with estimate £35-55 are now £420 The next lot is one similar box with absentee bid £55

Richard Batterham is widely regarded as the very best of the 3rd generation of potters to work in the Leach Anglo/Oriental Tradition With just cause. He now has virtually retired. This gives him a star quality that makes him bought for pure investment. Ditto the Lucie Rie, Emmanuel Cooper, etc in the aucition. This also has cast iron provenance as bought as Slader's Yard in 2014. Since he does not mark his work, the provenance makes it all the more desirable.

Looks like I’ve won 2 American lots :)
Put on a load of low bids hoping to pick up some if they otherwise would have gone unsold.

NaomiM wrote:Looks like I’ve won 2 American lots :)
Put on a load of low bids hoping to pick up some if they otherwise would have gone unsold.

That was certainly where the bargains were. Holding that section when they did seemed to have attracted people based in the States to bid (I know of a couple) but with the added costs and the fact that work by most of the American based potters is still available over there made most of it unattractive even if they won it with a modest bid.

I watched most of the auction and did bid on occasions, without success, and was amused by Adam P's comments when the Phil Roger's items came up for sale.

It would appear, not surprisingly, that Rogers has sent him nasty emails complaining about him and the auction house for selling his work too cheaply. As if auction houses have any say in what a pot goes for.

When a group of Roger's work went for what Adam thought was a decent sum he said that might make Rogers think differently but added................ I wouldn't bank on it though.

fridolina wrote:Two small Richard Batterham boxes with estimate £35-55 are now £420 The next lot is one similar box with absentee bid £55

The prices of these 3 small lidded butter dishes meant that the buyer(s) paid £260 to £280 a piece, which was out of sync with the other Batterham prices at the auction and with what I would have expected having sold Richard's items for more than 20 years. Having said that, what has happened since Richard was forced to stop potting through ill health hasn't been what I would have expected.

Traditionally, it was always more difficult for potters, who worked in this style, to sell lidded pots of any description in the UK than it is to sell items that don't have lids. However, American buyers have never had the same hang-up.

Maybe an explanation is that it was American buyers fighting over them or British buyers, who had previously never considered lidded pots, wanting examples for completeness.

Whatever the reason it did make me think that I should have asked more than £60 for the one that I sold a couple of months ago.