Maak contemporary ceramics – located at Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, 5 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 4UY – is a specialist auctioneer and art consultancy dedicated to ceramic art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Every year Maak holds two auctions, each of which offer a board, curated selection of ceramic artists that reflect all the major ceramic developments, particularly those from British Studio Ceramics.
In keeping with this theme of quality and variety, the second of Maak’s two auctions is taking place just around the corner, from 11 to 14 November. Their Autumn Modern + Contemporary sale, Living Collections, presents over 300 works, including nearly 100 pieces from a single-owner collection.
We only bought what we liked, never for investment, something we wanted to live with and enjoy.
While the hundreds of pieces going under the hammer each offer varied and unique histories and styles, all with their own story to tell, the single-owner collection is particularly exciting as it is imbued with a fierce passion and love, each piece having been bought for the collectors’ own pleasure.
This couple’s passion for British studio ceramics was sparked by the purchase of a single book in the late 1970s. Over 40 years, the collection then grew to become a broad survey to include highlights by Bernard and David Leach, William Staite Murray, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Ian Godfrey, Joanna Constantinidis, John Ward and Emmanuel Cooper, amongst many others.
Hailing from Miami, Florida, for their first trip to the UK in the 1980s, the couple made St Ives their focus. Subsequent visits took them to various countrysides in search of artist studios, potteries and craft fairs. The memories created through this process of collecting and how they then lived are embedded in the works – and are just as important as the pieces themselves.
Choosing the artworks together, as a pair, also comes to the fore in this collection – diversity and balance being brought together.
“I was more interested in the decorative ceramics, Joanna Constantinidis, Mary Rogers and Peter Lane and my husband was more interested in the classics, David Leach, Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji,” says one-half of the couple.
Of course, a living, breathing collection is often subject to change: both a physical change, where pieces are repositioned (to perhaps demonstrate similarities and/or contrasts), and also a change of replacement, where items are swapped out for newer ones, so that the collection is continually revived and observed in new light:
“It was a Living Collection, not something that was brought and put away. I would move things around, according to colour and the season and how I feel. It was a wonderful thing for us, it was a living object for us too. We would go around them and look at them and we knew where we bought each piece so we could go back through memory lane. This was a large part of our enjoyment, it was the whole process. They actually became part of our life; they were the welcome guests in our house. They became part of our family.”
All items shown throughout this article are a part of Maak’s 11-14 November sale. Online viewing for the auction is taking place from 25 October to 14 November, with physical viewing held from 11-14 November.
Explore Maak’s entire catalogue here
This article is sponsored by Maak
