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Article: Pots and pounds. (pottery auctions)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- March 11, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Pots and pounds
STUDIO ceramics have come of age in the London auction rooms. Four years ago a 1950s vase by Hans Coper, a leading British postwar potter, was estimated by Christie's at [pounds]2,000-3,000. Last month's estimate at Bonhams for a virtually identical piece was five times as high.
The vase, in the event, made [pounds]13,500. That, by chance, was the record price that Bonham's got in November for a work by Lucie Rie, Coper's mentor and colleague, still potting hard in her mid-80s. In the commerce of ceramics, the names of Coper and Rie have overtaken even Bernard Leach, father of the inter-war revival of British pottery. Miss Rie had a huge ...