How Much Stock in studio

How much stock can we put in some potters work , I mean , I have seen pieces by certain well known and sought after potters go for vast ammounts , yet the actual piece is average imo , I say imo , because I have one and am a collector and therefore entitled to say so , , bowls by Katharine Pleydell Bouverie, go for way over the top because of a NAME , fancy name granted , and no doubt well thought out when selling to the punter , there are loads of others , it seems that if you have a CONNECTION , then your IN , despite how actually good they are , ( witness the tate tat), I am all for good business , but the line gets crossed to many times for my liking when names are more important than the works , ............i wish there was a gallery who displayed works by artists / potters etc , un-named and let people decide what is pleasing and what is not .

I know what you are saying big ed and agree but "names" have always sold in all fields of art and always will.

Pleydell-Bouverie wasn't a very good potter technically but I have seen one or two excellent pots by her. The prices that they now sell for is probably too much but not significantly so and to be fair to her she never sold her work for high prices during her life time. Therefore to a certain extent she isn't the best example to choose, as her current prices must reflect supply and demand and there hasn't been any media frenzy about her and her work.

A better example and a less accomplished individual to cite would be Edmund de Waal, who is to my mind a 6th rate potter at best and an even less talented artist yet his "pottery installations" sell for tens of thousands of pounds. It is amazing what can be achieved by having rich and influential connections and the money to pay for a PR person to exaggerate your talent and worth.

Ed all that means you can buy superior (iyo) pots for reasonable prices and leave the ridicully high priced stuff to the fashion victims you should be pleased

that's the way I have always seen it Paul,the first pottery I collected was Poole pottery but I quickly moved on to the pottery produced by Guy Sydenham after he set up on his own.
Guy resigned because the quality at Poole Pottery had dropped sharply but most Poole collectors still judge a pot by what is stamped on the base,no Poole stamp equals no interest

All good and interesting points , Paul- your right , I never thought of it that way , I was only using KPB as an example , there are loads of other cases ,not just in pottery , take Antiques roadshowfor instance , Painting pops up , expert looks for signature , decides if it's a genuine constable it's worth a weeks petrol ( a lot of money ) if not it's worth zilch , basically they are looking for a name and if there is a picture /painting attached to it all the better , it is the pr teams that have a big say, dan's point is a good one too , because it's not as if all the great potters started out that way , they all produced crap at one time or another ,surely .

In the mid-70s Pleydell-Bouverie sold her pots for between 30p and £10 (Potters, Craftsmen Potters Association, 3rd edition). Charles Saatchi was asked if he wasn't inflating the price of certain artists' work. "How can you inflate the price of an artist's work?" he replied. "The value of a work is the price it is sold for."

I have seen certain collectable pottery hyped in recent years now we have TV 'expert' celebs with the power to influence the market

I would take anything Saatchi says with a huge load of salt , they could make bullsh***ing an olympic event .

Hi all, did you catch Mark Hill bidding £240 for a standard looking 14" ish West German Bay or Scheurich vase on the BBC2 show 'Put your money where your mouth is' - I know it was a charity auction - but even so......... if that isn't inflating the market what is??

Yes , but as you say a charity gig , I don't think anyone is going to rush out a pay that sort of dosh , for a £20 vase

Maybe, but Eric Knowles paid about £80 odd for it first and have seen them selling for more than £20 at car boots?? I started collecting W.German at the beginning of the year and am begining to think I missed the "cheap as chips" period......

Hi Nik - the cheap as chips period for West German pottery was about 5-10 years ago when you could literally pick iconic pots up for 10p ... I'm afraid you've definitely missed the boat although bargains can still be had obviously.

Pip's Right , I was picking up purple roth vases for around £10, no kiddin , the boat has truly sailed and to be fair to Mr knowles he only knows what Mark told him .

as this thread started on studio I think german studio stuff is still cheap

Some german stuff is cheap , but also unwanted , some is very very expensive more so than some british studio pieces and of course some of the studio german pieces are of high value.