WOOLLEY AND WALLIS studio pottery auctions

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da301122-2/?p=1&s=160&v=list
December 1 in Salisbury. There is also another sale the previous day of British Art pottery Matrtin Bros, William De Morgan, Charles Vyse, Pilkington etc. An interesting collection of Stella Croftd work as well.
           Anyways, as to this catalogue. A good sale with a wide range of pieces. Henderson, Suttie, Rie, Baldwin,  and other significant potters. The first page of the catalogueis mainly Leach school. There are a couple of nice Janet Leach and Shoji Hamada pieces.

A good sale with another large amount of Batterham from the potter's estate plus some very nice pieces of art pottery as well as studio items, Wooley's autumn sale is normally worth waiting for and always contains something of interest.

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da301122-2/?p=1&s=160&v=list#lot-547

Results of the sale. Most went within what were rather low estmates. Peter Beard, Angus Suttie and John Ward did well. One does get the feeling that the Studio Pottery bread and butter market is reacting to the prevailingdoom and gloom.

Hi philpot, I couldn't agree more the Mallams sale today also gave the same impression, as for the black and white John Ward pot in Wooley's, i thought i might buy it but at the moment i am not prepared to get dragged into five figures for a pot.

Looking at both sales, the Mallams one was largely a collection of bits and bobs, with most of them not very popular these days. The W & W sale had much better pieces and I thought the Batterhams made more than I would have expected, considering that a number of "new collectors" of his work that fell for the hype have become cheesed off. Most of the other potters that haven't been mentioned above sold (when commission is added on) for more than I would have expected to achieve for the the same pieces, if I was selling them.

Basically, there's a lot of stuff coming up for auction and if the doom and gloom was really concerning buyers, I think a larger number would have gone unsold.

From my recent experiences, the vast majority of studio pottery collectors still have money to spend but have far more choice than I have known since I began dealing.

Woolley and Wallis spring design sale now on line. The majority of the sale is given over to many pieces of Batterham and Leach school . I am amazed at the take up of this type of ware with so much coming to the market recently.

Several years before Richard Batterham stopped potting the number of people interested in work by him that I had for sale increased considerable and these were new younger collectors in their 30s and 40s. Like the majority of collectors that I have always sold to, these were well paid professionals. They wouldn't have been around in the heyday of the Leach school and so the collecting base is much larger than it was 10 years ago.

What you might call a One-Tone sale for studio pottery. If you are not interested in the Leach school then it is dullsville. It will be interesting to see what prices the Batterham prices fetch. The major V&A exhibition combined with his decease really did increase his prices sharply. It will be interesting to see if the prices have now faded slightly. There is a LOT of his work in this sale!

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da230323/?p=1&s=40&v=list#lot-450
The results of today's sale, 23 March Most of the Batterham went reasonably well but not so much the OTT prices of recent years. Provenance is gold though. A few of the pieces were at the V&A exhibition and went £2000+.

There look to be some crazy Batterham prices to me, especially when you multiply by 1.3 but I remember the standard prices when he was potting and the prices that I sold things for last week.

I will be having email correspondence with a collector later and see what he feels about the auction.

A year's show at one of the best design museums in the world does a lot for your prices Studio. Even Lucie Rie and Hans Coper did not have that!

After a quick look at the Wooley December sale. Ooodles of mid market pieces, with very little gosh-wow items. A few years a lot of that horde of Batterham pieces would have been in multi lots.
It will be a good market test, The Wooley December sale has had a long tradition now. It probably attracts a lot more of the general studio pottery buyer than say the Maak one does.

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da301123/?p=1&s=40&v=list#lot-1037

The results of the December sale. Steady might be the word to describe it. Few unsolds, most selling within estimates. Batterham prices seem to have cooled a bit, although there was a lot of Batterham here. Circa £3000 for a large Batterham teapot was unusual. Sold prices here now include Buyer's premium.

It was the Martin Bros. prices that shocked me.
£63,000 for a spoon warmer It was 'only' estimated at £15,000 - £25,000.

There were two Spoon warmers there. No 551 sold for several times it estimate. No 568 had a bid sale hammer price which was actually below its estimate! WEIRD!
The bidding on the majority of the Martin Ware was mostly quite conservative though.
https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da291123/?p=2&s=40&v=list#lot-556

I guess that depends on your definition of conservative  
But yeh, I know what you mean.
I've always really liked the Martin Bros. work and I fell in luv with the 'imp' musicians when I first saw them about 25 years ago in the Potteries Museum. But all the stuff I like is WELL above my budget!!

It's just weird how some works by some potters, go for sums many times (10's even 100's) their original selling prices. Whilst others, equally well made (sometimes better), never reach even their original selling price

I think it is the 'Grotesque' nature of some of the Martin Brothers output that is the most attractive, The the Wally Birds at the pinnacle. It is their popularity in the American market that has sent prices soaring.

A Wally Bird in the Kinghams Auction on 11 May this year was something special. 53 cms high and used as an illustration on the cover Martin Brother book. £170,000 bid price!

Woolley and Wallis design 21st March sale is now published on their website. Studio pottery from Lot 216. Another large helping of Batterham from his estate ,where does it all find homes?, a very ordinary  sale i think.

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da210324/?p=1&s=160&v=list

Thanks for the link Coker.
A bread and butter sale you might say. The vast majority of the potters listed could have been in any sale of the last 30 years. With many of the estimates not too dissimilar! It looks like Studio pottery is a fairly quiet market at the moment.
On the other hand of course. If you have just started, or building, or wanting to fill gaps in a collection. It is a very good one. But no Whizz-Bang look at the lovely lucre money pieces.
Near 60 lots of Richard Batterham. The vast majority from the 'Richard Batterham estate' Now what does that actually mean? His estate for Inheritance tax purposes should have been settled a long time ago. Or this Trust or such like? Whatever it is. Dumping such large amount on the market must depress sales value

I quite agree philpot , i can't see many established collectors wanting much from this sale but anybody thinking of starting an inexpensive collection of traditional pottery then this might seem an attractive sale, the only interest for me is lot495 the Collingwood hanging. As well made as Batterham pots are the hundreds that Woolley's have put on the market since his death have somewhat cheapened the product, gone are the days when they sat on their white pedestals at Goldmark at highly inflated prices .

Goldmark still have a few bits from the Mike Dodd collection 2 years ago. Which in Batterham sales terms seems aeons ago. 29 cm medium jug £1950 plus P&P.

https://www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk/departments/20th-century-design/da210324/?p=1&s=40&v=list#lot-180

The result of the second day of the latest Wooley and Wallis ceramics sale. Batterham and studio pottery prices stood up well, but no real huge great surprises. As is usual now the 'results' includes Buyer's premium which adds considerably to the headline price.
I got the impression from the previous day's sale, and other recent auctions. That general ceramics like Clarice Cliffe, Ruskin etc are struggling a bit at the moment. Is this right?

Hi philpot , Many of the 'general ceramics', as you put it have taken a bit of a downturn over a number of years, the very best still seem to be selling reasonably well but the more ordinary are suffering somewhat, Brannum, Elton ware etc have all taken large hits, Ruskin needs to be of the high fired variety to sell well and has a fairly small but dedicated group of collectors as do the products of Della Robbia, William De Morgan and Martin ware are still very strong but potteries like Ault and Linthorpe are patchy with mainly those with a dresser facsimile selling well. As for the sale Batterham seems to sell well in this room .

Back when all of the London auction houses had stopped their studio pottery sales, Woolley and Wallis was on of the few auction houses where studio pottery was offered in any quantity and quality and I used to attend and stay overnight in a B&B in Salisbury. Part of the trip was usually a visit to Richard at his pottery to buy some gallery stock, as he wasn't far away. He was the local supplier of domestic functional tableware and so would have had a vast number of people around Salisbury that bought his pots for use. Therefore it's logical that the Batterham prices do well there.