Tag: pottery

Designer Desire: Prue Cooper

Montage of Prue Cooper slipware ceramic plates

I was looking at potter, Hannah McAndrew‘s Instagram feed recently and saw that she said she’s currently having a joint exhibition with Prue Cooper at Contemporary Ceramics in Bloomsbury, London.

That info spurred me on to go check out Prue’s work and I discovered another slipware genius. Her plates, platters and dishes are just beautiful; at the same time traditional and modern. Her colour palettes are unexpected and alluring. Many of her pieces have known and not so well known quotes written around the rim in the most beautiful calligraphy. Quotes by the likes of Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Gerard Winstanley on the subjects of love, life, food and more.

Prue Cooper is a member of The Art Workers’ Guild and the Craft Potters Association. Her work is available at Contemporary Ceramics, Gallery St Ives in Tokyo, Japan and on her own website. Prices range from around £90 up to £380. Check out her Instagram feed for other examples of her work.

My dishes are meant to be used and enjoyed; slip decorated press-moulded earthenware is an approachable and friendly medium. The designs reflect my view of life, celebrating friendship and the sharing of simple pleasures.

Portrait of Prue Coopercredit

All images: © Prue Cooper

Designer Desire: Peter Guggenbühler

Selection of Peter Guggenbühler ceramic designs for Altenstadt

Sometimes, it’s when you’re researching something completely unrelated that a titbit of information comes your way!

That was the case when I discovered that it was Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2007) who was responsible for the series of porcelain decanters for Altenkunstadt that we sold in the past (shown at the top of our montage above).

As well as the decanters, he designed the Das Variabile range of stylised animal figures. They each have detachable stained wood and ceramic eyes and each was given a name:

  • AJAX & BEJAX
  • Lion – “Zottl”
  • Alligator – “Fafnir”
  • Rabbit – “Guggi”
  • Owl – “Huhu”
  • Snail – Schlurf”
  • Frog – “Herr Q”
  • Cat – “Killer”
  • Hippo – “Hippo”
  • Crow – Krah”

In addition he has created vases, wall plaques and small-scale sculptures.

In 2014, there was a posthumous exhibition of his work at Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was entitled “Vom Umgang mit Porzellan, Elefanten und anderen Kreaturen – der Keramiker Peter Guggenbühler” which roughly translates as “The handling of porcelain, elephants and other creatures – the ceramist Peter Guggenbühler”. Here’s how the marketing material described it:

In its spring exhibition, the Staufen Ceramics Museum commemorates Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2008), who, after initial successes in Saarbrücken, returned to his hometown of Karlsruhe in 1961 and was one of the most respected representatives of his field in Baden-Württemberg in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Of course he didn’t behave like the proverbial elephant in a china shop, he loved the material too much for that. But he has thoroughly confused the expectations associated with porcelain. Instead of pleasing figures, he has all sorts of bizarre creatures that are clearly descended from elephants, crocodiles, rats and various horned and antlered animals, but which clearly show human traits and behaviour.
In addition to small sculptures, Guggenbühler created reliefs and tiles in which he opened up other venues for human comedy, such as theatres and pulpits. An artist with exuberant imagination who is worth rediscovering!

Check Etsy for items occasionally popping up for sale.

Designer Desire: Vivienne Brennan

Montage of Vivienne Brennan Carlton Ware pottery designs

Vivienne Brennan worked for Carlton Ware and created a number of designs for the company. They can be mainly be found on money boxes and salt & pepper pots. You can see a few more of her patterns in this Flickr group.

Despite her output being so well known in the vintage world, we can’t find any information whatsoever about her. Please get in touch if you can shed some light on this wonderful artist!

We currently have a couple of her designs for sale in our web shop or you could also look on eBay or Etsy.

Additional image credits:
My Pot Shots | Todocoleccion

Auction alert: Lady Elizabeth Hart Collection and The Wallace Collection of Oriental Art

An extensive Midwinter Riviera pattern table service

This week, we’re featuring the Three Day Fine Art and Antique Auction, including the Lady Elizabeth Hart Collection and The Wallace Collection of Oriental Art. The sale will take place at Bamfords Auctioneers & Valuers‘ head office, their auction house in Derby, which lies 10 minutes off the M1 on the Nottingham side of the city. The sale dates & times will be as follows:

  • 5th May 2022 from 10am
  • 6th May 2022 from 10am
  • 9th May 2022 from 10am

There’ll be a massive 1,724 lots going under the hammer across the three days. After trawling and trawling through the lots, we stumbled across some unexpected items. Tucked away within the more ‘fancy’ antiques – after the silver and jewellery and before the large collection of European and Far Eastern art we found the following few mid 20th century gems. We can’t believe the low estimate on the Midwinter Riviera set!

Bamfords charges a buyers’ premium of 24.75% plus VAT on the hammer price of each lot.

Live online bidding is available for all our auctions via www.easyliveauction.com or www.the-saleroom.com.  The charge for using these services is 3.6% of the hammer price or a flat fee of £3 with no further premium being charged for EasyLiveAuction and 5.5% of the hammer price (plus VAT where chargeable) for The Saleroom.

Bamfords can offer postage on items of a small and non-fragile nature, our minimum charge is £19.50 for Royal Mail Special Delivery service. Please be aware that we cannot offer postage of jewellery, weapons, ceramics or paintings & pictures and we do not offer postage internationally.

An extensive Midwinter Riviera pattern table service

Lot 359: An extensive Midwinter Riviera pattern table service
Designed by Hugh Casson inc dinner plates, salad pates, coffee pot, tea pot, milk jug, sugar bowl, cups, saucers, side plates, etc, printed marks, qty.
Estimate: £30 – £40

A large Troika Double Bass vase

Lot 363: A large Troika Double Bass vase
Estimate: £150 – £200
Designed by Sue Bladen, in relief with geometrical motifs, in earth tones and blue, 36cm high, painted mark, monogrammed. Hairline fractures to top of vase

A Troika Chimney vase

Lot 364: A Troika Chimney vase
Decorated with an arrangement of granular and smooth geometric and scraffito motifs, glazed in blue, brown and ochre, 20cm high, painted monogrammed HK, marks in black, c.1970
Estimate: £100 – £150

A Troika slab sided vase

Lot 365: A Troika slab sided vase
Decorated with geometric and scraffito motifs, glazed in mottled shades of sea green, brown and ochre, 17.5cm, painted marks, monogrammed, c.1970
Estimate: £100 – £150

A Troika Wheel vase

Lot 366: A Troika Wheel vase
Designed by Linda Taylor, incised with motif, 12cm high, painted marks, monogrammed; a square ashtray, 12.5cm high; a similar vase, 12cm high (3)
Estimate: £100 – £150

A Denby Tigo Ware Florence vase

Lot 367: A Denby Tigo Ware Florence vase
Designed by Tibor Reich, in black and white, 38 cm high, printed mark, c.1956. Slight crack through base
Estimate: £150 – £200