Ceramics

Two events organised by Brian and Anna Haughton featured among the busy programme of London events in June.

It was, said specialist Michael Jeffery, “one of, if not the finest, collections of Burmantofts put together by a private individual”.

Following a near sell-out auction of Lowestoft in March at Keys of Aylsham, another tranche is poised to go under the saleroom’s hammer.

AD Antiques, run by British art pottery specialist Alison Davey, is selling this grotesque spoon warmer by the Martin Brothers.

A Sèvres teapot from the Louis-Philippe era sold for an unexpected £13,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Kingham & Orme in Broadway, Worcestershire, on June 17.

A massive Burmantofts faience charger sold for £13,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium) at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury on June 22 – the highlight of a remarkable collection of more than 700 pieces by the Leeds factory.

A pair of 12in (30cm) high Sèvres hard paste vases painted with elaborate chinoiserie sea battles by Jean-Jacques Dieu, proved the highlight of Bonhams’ June 14 sale of European ceramics.

A group of five 8in (20cm) William de Morgan (1839-1917) tiles drew lively competitive bids at Cuttlestones in Wolverhampton on June 8.

On July 13 Boston saleroom Skinner will be offering the Victor & Muriel Polikoff Collection comprising nearly 300 lots of 18th and early 19th century ceramics.

Figurative sculptor Christy Keeney from Donegal, Ireland, has been an exhibitor at the Earth and Fire International Ceramic Fair in Nottinghamshire for 16 of the 22 annual events held so far.

Earlier this year Woolley & Wallis decorative arts specialist Michael Jeffery received a call out of the blue from the family of a recently deceased collector in the south of England.

Major dealers remain confident about the market for top-level English 18th century ceramics. At lower levels, however, the disappearance of so many dedicated collectors continues to take its toll.

An early rare Lowestoft teapot and cover and a pair of 19th century glass marriage tankards from York are just two of the highlights at the third annual York Antiques, Decoratives & Fine Arts Fair.

The estate of prominent Jewish art collector Emma Budge has appealed for a rare early 18th century Meissen stoneware figure – the subject of a recent export stop – to be returned.

Ceramics items on offer in London this summer from auction houses and dealers.

Three substantial sales from Edinburgh to Exeter via Doncaster last month confirmed the promise of early spring with the staple areas of furniture, silver and ceramics holding up and, for named or specialist-interest material, doing well. The figures underline the overall buoyancy.

Woolley & Wallis holds one of its dedicated English and Continental ceramics auctions in Salisbury on May 23. The wide range of material on offer takes in everything from the major 18th and 19th century English porcelain factories to a group of Italian maiolica.