THE ESTATE OF JANE COPER.Best Rie/COPER SALE EVER.......

Not for the likes of us!! .................... so I don't think I'll register to bid.

An amazing sale Philpot, the late Cycladic pieces are almost the equal of the pieces in the Sainsbury collection and i imagine this will probably be the last opportunity that well heeled collectors will have to add this type to their collections. I was hoping that there would be more documentary items shown ,photos, sketches etc but i expect the family will be hanging on to those. I see that they have engaged Edmund De Waal to present the pots on a short video and surprisingly none are behind glass. I look forward to the auction.

"Engaged Edmund de Waal" a man who knows sweet FA about these types of ceramics and usually gets others to talk/write b*llsh*t about the crap that he makes.

I despair but hope sick bags are provided.

Laughing so much I was about to call a paramedic!!!!

He’s also a good speaker; making some very good documentaries on Meissen etc

philpot wrote:

studio-pots wrote:"Engaged Edmund de Waal" a man who knows sweet FA about these types of ceramics and usually gets others to talk/write b*llsh*t about the crap that he makes.

I despair but hope sick bags are provided.

Awww Studio your prejudices are showing!
I don't much like his work. But.....! He did a several year apprenticeship with Geoffrey Whiting. He has written numerous books books on Ceramics. He is a  Good writer. His best selling book 'Hare With the Amber Eyes' was a very good read.

de Waal was taught at school by Geoffrey Whiting and, as you said, did an apprentice with him. In one of the first articles where he was interviewed (for the Times newspaper in their Saturday edition) he "bad-mouthed" Geoffrey and his work. Before that my only opinion on him was that he had been to Japan to research and write a book about Bernard Leach, in which he was less than complimentary about Bernard, and while there had seen the porcelain work of Tsubusa Kato, which he copied when he returned to the UK. After reading the Times article, I thought what an absolute b*stard, as did Geoffrey Whiting's son from what I have heard.

Before producing poor copies of Tsubusa Kato's work, de Waal had made rather boring stoneware pots in the Leach/Whiting style for years without getting noticed. Upon his return from Japan he told his former schoolfriends that he had found how to become famous - by producing porcelain and paying a PR company to lie about you, your importance and your work.

He is a better writer than a potter or artist, as his ceramic work doesn't contain a single original idea. So a decent writer perhaps but a top rate plagiarist he much be, as with the help of being well connected and PR is has become one of the top three highest priced ceramicists working in the UK.

Along the way he has proved that he is the most obnoxious, self-centred individual that you could possibly imagine and all the ceramic artists that I know that have had any dealings with him and have expressed an opinion to myself and others in private that opinion pretty much is theirs too. Obviously, if they say anything in public it will just be dismissed as "sour grapes", which I know is not the case. Hence why I like to do my little bit to tell the world what he's really like.

There are a number of potters who's work is very well respected but are real sh*ts when you have dealings with them. Should that detract from their work? I love de Waal's installations and his documentaries. Thankfully he's not someone I'm ever likely to meet in the flesh.

would you want to buy a pot from an unpleasant person?

denbydump wrote:would you want to buy a pot from an unpleasant person?

I could name a couple of unpleasant potters that most of us have in our collections
However, I’ve not bought 3 potters’ work at the Fairs because they’ve insulted fellow potters on Facebook - and I’m not talking about de Waal. Plenty more fish in the sea for us collectors.

A great sale, i did think of attending but decided to watch online, quite a marathon as the sale took around five hours for just over 100 lots. The black Cycladic piece was always going to be the star but a number of others vied for second place all at over £400,000, my personal favourite was lot331 which came in at just £457,000, only one lot left unsold in the whole sale.