Pep and John Branfield auction at David Lay’s Feb. 29

Ceramics start at Lot 114

https://www.davidlay.co.uk/auction/details/p0jpb-the-art-collection-of-pep-and-john-branfield/?au=285

I was looking at that earlier on. A lot of nice paintings. Also a superior selection of St Ives greats. The couple of Janet Leach pieces look super. A very Cornish collection!

A nicely curated collection, this shows how an excellent collection can be formed on a limited budget over a number of years. There are no really outstanding examples but good carefully selected mid range pieces by important artists, The ceramics also are are slightly above the norm with good examples from Janet leach, Marshall and others. My pick of the paintings would be the three by John wells.

The Janet Leach pieces are probably the best individual selection in one auction for some substantial time. A number of the estimates are £1000+. Way back in 2011 one of her pieces fetched £3800. One wonders where these will end up?

When Janet Leach got my attention a couple of years ago i decided to put together a small collection of her work but soon found out that ''all of her geese are not swans'' (a slightly altered quote from Bill Ismay). Janet was very 'productive' and this shows on quite a number of her pots, on Ebay for example there are a number of mediocre pots of hers . I think the estimates on her pots in this sale are quite punchy but one in particular grabs my attention lot 115 , this pot sold for £1080 in 2007 and has exhibition status

Yes, I see that it was on loan to the Leach pottery for a couple of years. Do you think that exhibition provenance adds much to the final price? We never really thought about that when we were buying ourselves. Just bought stuff we liked.
The estimates on Michael Cardew would indicate that demand for his work seems to be declining sharply.

I don't think that it makes too much difference to the price but the provenance of having exhibition status or from a famous collection is always nice to have. I think Michael Cardew is gradually losing ground ,possibly because his ware seems a little 'folksy' to a lot of collectors. I know that Janet Leach was reluctant to sell what she classed as exhibition pieces through the pottery showroom , this was told to me by an old acquaintance of hers in St Ives.

croker wrote: I know that Janet Leach was reluctant to sell what she classed as exhibition pieces through the pottery showroom , this was told to me by an old acquaintance of hers in St Ives.

Back in the day, and my day too, potters almost always would never sell their exhibition pieces through their own showrooms or at Fairs and would never include items in their exhibitions with me that they didn't believe deserved to be there. That suited me and collectors but that all changed really when Goldmark began exhibiting and wanted far more pots that the usual exhibition number of 60 to 70 pots. Two of the potters that showed with him actually said that it now means that exhibitions of new work are more about selling quantity than showing quality.

https://www.davidlay.co.uk/auction/details/p0jpb-the-art-collection-of-pep-and-john-branfield/?au=285&pn=3&g=1

The results of the above collection, From Number 114. A good sale for Studio pottery. Prices for Leach St Ives seem to be showing a much wider interest across all the main potters. The 33 cms Janet Leach black vase that had been on show at the St Ives pottery £3100, and another Janet Leach £2000.Norah Braden£5,800,and £2500.Katherine Pleydell Bouverie £4800. Bill Marshall £2700
Whereas Bernard Leach £3,500,£2100. Shoji Hamada £4000.
Michael Cardew prices have bombed. Notable was for a William Fishley Holland very traditional country pottery vase at £2,400.

Morning philpot, I was on the Janet leach pot but let it go, there was a determined bidder and at £3000 i thought it was enough ,nice piece though. Overall the sale had some very good prices, £70,000 for a tiny Alfred Wallis and good results across the board for the paintings. This sale was well advertised and part was on show in London, i think the Cornish connection kicked in though.

Good marketing sells. Although it was a very good collection to market.
It is notable the much higher prices for the early female potters in St Ives. I wonder if this reflects the wider interest in female artists generally over he past 20 years? Or just the fact that potters like Janet Leach and Katherine Pleydell Bouverie are such very fine potters

I feel sure it was the marketing that helped the achieved prices , i don't think that many of the pieces would make as much in ordinary sales. There is a definite trend in museums for acquiring objects that favour female artists , my local museum the 'Sainsbury Centre' has already started buying pieces to close the gender gap, recent acquired pots are by Liz Fritsch, Alison Britton and Magdelane Odundo, these three pots are currently on display but i have no doubt will soon go into store with all the other ceramics.

The Museums and their acquisition policies are ever so slightly bonkers. Lots of them have vast amounts of stuff in store, never ever to see the light of day. The modern policy of museums seems to be very trendy one of connecting with people and their culture. Which s mostly means dumbing down to attract the footfall!

I think that the modern policy of Museums is because they need to but on exhibitions that will attract the public and their money, which is needed for the museums to survive.

Going back to the general prices at this auction, since I became involved in the studio pottery world in the 1990s, auctions in Cornwall have always generally achieved higher prices than elsewhere for Leach Pottery and associated work.

Before taking over the Harlequin Gallery in 1999 I did flirt briefly with the idea of buying a vacant shop with living premises above in St. Ives and moving there to start a gallery. Long established businesses in the town where coming to the end of their lifespan and premises were affordable and available. However, one of the big drawbacks was that, although St. Ives was a perfect place to sell Leach Pottery and the like, it would have meant travelling to other parts of the country and even up to London to get things to sell, as local auction prices were too high to be able to retail.