Washington at Sworders design

The  latest Sworders design catalogue has another 30+ lots from  the Washington studio collection part 2 , many of these lots appear to have minor damages, i suspect  this will be the last offering from the foundation. The catalogue has excellent photos of each lot plus a potted history of the potter, also in the sale is a nice b/w John Ward pot quite small but should do well. The only  other pieces of studio pottery are one lot of Malone and a slightly damaged piece of Consantinidis,. There is a very good wall hanging by Collingwood lot 396 £4000- £6000 these objects have done well recently and this one is being sold for the Ukraine appeal.

I'll have the e-type Jag and the Puppets
Apart from that...What is there? The Washington pieces look very nice. But with the damage, the estimates still look rather high. Indeed, how many collectors would touch a damaged item? Even with restoration (and really good restoration is Expensive!) one would always have that little scintilla of worry in the back of your mind.

The second offering of the Washington foundation pot holdings at Sworders today met with very few sales and really was a disaster, i think that this illustrates the dangers of flooding a small market that's already near saturation , the John Ward b/w pot also struggled a bit but limped over the line at just £4000 similar examples have been fetching far more than this, i have noticed a distinct levelling of prices recently in most areas.

Troubled times, everyone will want gold not clay. Everyone's on tiptoe trying to see if there is a recession over the horizon. Antique crystal balls might sell well now.

People are definitely running scared. Keeping their money very close to their chest. Ebay prices are looking distinctly lax. The Washington pieces at Sworders would have been part of that. Neither here or there stylistically they fell between the stools. The studio pottery market might well be going through the sort of storm that happened in 2008/9 when all the big auction exited the market for it.