NEWSLETTER : May 2006 - Edition Number 145
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
From the President
Circle Meetings and Events
What's on??
The market for European Ceramics
From the President
Simon Cottle’s visit courtesy of Sotheby’s London was a real treat for those who attended the April meeting. To have a lecture on the history of Continental glass was fascinating . I believe the lecture stimulated many people’s interest in this fascinating field. We are very grateful that Sotheby’s allowed Simon to extend his short stay in Melbourne to accommodate us.
Felicity Marno’s lecture on James Giles was a mine of new information on this most interesting London decorator. A very large group of people attended stretching our rooms to capacity. Her lecture enabled us to look at the inner detail of the Giles decorative style. We also had a marvelous display of pieces brought by members on the night.
Terrence Lockett, through lovely slides, helped us understand eighteenth century English Creamware. He brought us many personal anecdotes on a subject he is particularly passionate about. We wish him ‘bon voyage’ on the Wednesday morning as he left for a stay in England.
Our Warburton Study weekend is in the final planning stage and should prove to be as stimulating as the previous twelve. We will be studying European and English eighteenth century porcelain figures and their source material. There will be a display of over fifty figures of the period as well as an opportunity to learn how to make figures and understand their decoration.
The Circle’s June meeting is on the first Tuesday not the second; that is June 6th. Please take note and come a week earlier than normal. We will have four Circle members making short presentations as detailed later in this newsletter. This is a marvelous opportunity to allow our members to speak on their favorite pieces or subject.
The July meeting will be quite different this year as we will be offering the opportunity for you to sit in small groups where you will be able to handle pieces of different types and origins. On that night we ask that you not wear rings, dangling jewelry or loose clothing.
Included in this newsletter is the booking form for the Mid-winter dinner that will be on August 12th at my home. Please put the date in your diary and return the booking form promptly as places are limited.
We have nearly completed the selection of material for the Japanese porcelain exhibition later in the year, however if you have pieces which I do not, as yet, know about please be in touch with me in the next two weeks.
Patricia Begg O.A.M.
President, May 2006
Circle Meetings and Events
June 2006 Meeting
NOTE THE EARLIER DATE
This will be held on Tuesday 6th June 2006 at 7.30pm when four presentations will be given by Circle members:
Amanda Dunsmore will discuss an exciting du Paquier bowl from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria which has schwarzlot decoration possibly by Jakob Helchis.
Heather Heinemann will speak on the works of the designer Christopher Dresser.
Paul Rosenberg will talk on Eighteenth Century Ceramic Restoration.
Anne Stephenson will speak about Dr John Wall and the formation of the Worcester porcelain factory.
Venue:
Melbourne / South Yarra Community Centre
Fawkner Park
65 Toorak Road West
South Yarra 3141
July 2006 Meeting
This will be held on Tuesday 11th July 2006 at 7.30pm and will be a Circle “first” when during a meeting members will be invited, under supervision, to handle various ceramic items so as to learn correct handling techniques.
Venue:
Melbourne / South Yarra Community Centre
Fawkner Park
65 Toorak Road West
South Yarra 3141
What's on??
ENGLISH CERAMIC CIRCLE’S SUMMER EXHIBITION
“BRITISH SAUCEBOATS, 1720-1850”
The English Ceramic Circle is having an important loan exhibition in London this summer, on “British Sauceboats, 1720-1850”. It will be held from 8th – 17th June.
All the items will be from private collections and many have never been on display in public before. The Exhibition will show the development of ceramic sauceboat through the 18th to the early 19th century.
There will be both pottery and porcelain examples. In some cases the Continental or silver prototypes will be displayed with the British example, giving a fascinating insight into the cross-cultural influences that played such a vital role in 18th Century style and design.
Date: 8th – 17th June 2006
At: Stockspring Antiques, 114 Kensington Church St, London W8 4BH
Tel: +44 (0) 207 727 7995
Email: stockspring@antique-porcelain.co.uk
At the Hamilton Art Gallery
107 Brown Street, Hamilton
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the NARA Treaty of Friendship and Co-Operation, a series of exchanges are planned this year between Australia and Japan. The Hamilton Art Gallery will stage a number of exhibitions looking at various aspects of the arts in Japan, including metalwork, swords, lacquer and ceramics.
The Art of Japanese Lacquer
This comprises two loan exhibitions – “Unryuan, a contemporary lacquer master” showcasing the impressive work of Unryuan, Japan’s foremost lacquer artist and “Kaoru Contemporary Japanese Lacquer” featuring works by 10 contemporary Japanese lacquer artists. These are held in association with the Lesley Kehoe Galleries, Melbourne.
Until 9th July 2006
Richard Crawley: Dunkeld Images
An exhibition of twenty-two black and white photographs by Richard Crawley, a Port Fairy based photographer which have been selected from works commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Dunkeld, Victoria.
Until 2nd July 2006
At the Geelong Gallery
Little Malop Street, Geelong
The Cutting Edge - Cut and Engraved Glass
This exhibition illustrates various ways in which the ancient tradition of glass cutting and engraving extends into the contemporary realm and works by 16 contemporary artists are seen alongside a smaller representation of historical glass.
Until 2nd July 2006
A Wagga Wagga Art Gallery traveling exhibition
The Market for European Ceramics
Sebastian Kuhn, July 2005
The European Ceramics and Porcelain market is an especially broad market. It covers pottery from the late 15th century onwards and porcelain from the start of the 18th century in Europe, and throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century. It includes countless makers and factories in numerous countries. The ceramic market is stable because it is primarily composed of broad base of buyers across the world, it is an international market, which includes collectors, museums and dealers, and the market could probably be described as one of the more knowledgeable and discerning groups. If one considers the contemporary art market which is more fashion driven, ceramics has a very knowledgeable group of collectors.
You cannot generalise about such a complex market because the moment we commence looking at specific areas, a particular maker or period for example, it becomes clear that there are sometimes a number of complex factors at work that can influence a market and these made differ widely between makers. It is quite hard to draw general conclusions about the ceramics market, and any scientific conclusions are all but impossible and a thorough survey of the market would be something like charting the decline of the Roman Empire.
Tonight we will focus on some sections of the market and try to identify some trends, illustrate a few surprises and provide a glimpse on how the market for European ceramics operates internationally.
Selected pieces of English porcelain and pottery will show how prices have changed over a 50 year period and show the factors that have influenced the market, such as fashion, how taste has changed, rarity, provenance, and literature. In doing so, we will see by example how complex the factors that set the price can be, and in the process show how the auction world operates, how we keep track of prices and set prices.
We will also look at recent highlights from sales in London of European ceramics, pieces that sold very well and why high prices are being paid on some items. A few highlights on what was on offer and the pieces that did very well and why it is that high prices are currently being paid on some items.
We will start with a basic example of changes and price trends over a fifty year period and the extent to which fashion can influence them; the first question is how this is done, where does the information about prices come from and the short answer is mostly from auction records. Two Chelsea teapots from 1982 which were listed at £850, and by way of contrast in 1992 a similar teapot sold for £8,000. Over a ten year period prices have gone up tenfold. This compares to a basic cost of living figure taken randomly, inflation taken from 1982 – 1992 was 67% so the teapot has gone up at a much faster rate than inflation.
Specific and more complex examples are taken from archive cards in Sotheby’s European Ceramics archive, pages from auction catalogues are cut out with details and prices written in, dates and various codes. In the Ceramics department card archive they are filed by material (porcelain, pottery, etc), by country, by maker, by type of decoration and within that type of decoration by shape, so the record kept is accurate as possible on price information, and as that archive commenced around the end of the Second World War, it is by no means complete but is a thorough guide to records of prices since that time.
Another example is a large Chelsea Rabbit Tureen and Cover of about 1755, which was sold in 1957 for $US12, 000. A similar piece sold in 1983 for the equivalent of $US14, 850. These are a marked contrast to the two previous teapots as the Tureen does not really show an increase in price over the 25 years in which they were sold, in fact it indicates a decrease in real terms. Was it a period of low inflation or even deflation? Inflation in that period was six fold about 600%, so that was not the reason. Fashion comes in as it was a buoyant market for Chelsea in the 1950s and it was a relatively depressed market by the 1980s.
We can look at how this might have changed in the times since 1983. As a rough comparison there is a Chelsea Hen and Chicks Tureen and Cover, about 1755. I think it is probably of the same rarity as the Rabbit. This example was sold at Christie’s London in December 2003 for £223,000. This represents about a thirty fold increase in price in 45 years, if we assume that the Rabbit and Hen and Chicks are roughly of similar value.
If we compare to the cost of living increase over that time from the 1950s to the present based on the cost of living calculator, the Hen and Chicks, assuming it was the same price as the Rabbit at $12,000, the Hen and Chicks should have cost about £61,000, it should have been an approximate fourteen fold increase. This type of ware would have been an extremely good buy in the late 1970s or early 1980s, because the rate of inflation between 1983 and 2001 (the latest figure) shows an inflation rate of 100% whereas the increase of these Chelsea pieces over the same period is about 27 times. They would have also been a very good buy in the 1950s as long as you did not sell in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
A more specific example is a Chelsea Scolopendrium moulded teapot and cover of about 1755 which was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in April 2004 for $US90, 000. The same teapot was sold in 1962 and again in 1966. This is a better example than the Hen and Chicks or the Rabbit because it is the same piece sold over a number of years and is a more accurate gauge of the market than using similar or comparably rare objects. It also as it has an illustrious provenance and references in the literature may be a factor in affecting the price of a piece at auction. This teapot was published several times, firstly by William King in Chelsea Porcelain; it was published in the Connoisseur Magazine in 1922 and published by F. Severne Mackenna in 1948 in his work on Chelsea triangle and raised anchor porcelain.
The history at auction is also interesting, the teapot being first sold by Sotheby’s in June 1941 from the celebrated Bellamy Gardner collection for £17 and it went to the collection of Frank Hurlbutt. It sold again in October 1945 by Sotheby’s for £85. In May 1962 it sold for £1,150 from the MacHarg collection and in 1966 it was sold from the collection of Selwyn Parkinson for £3,800.
It is the only recorded example of this type of teapot, it has been in four celebrated collections, and it has also been published in standard works on the subject. It sold again for $90,000 a couple of years ago. Since 1966 the price increase was nine fold and the inflation over that period was just over 900%. If we compare the price between 1962 and 1966 it roughly triples in a few short years whereas the inflation over the period was relatively low at 15%. The importance of provenance adds a certain something to acquiring a piece and in the 1960s you see the impact of the international market as opposed to local buyers. In 1966 the teapot was bought by Mrs. Dillon, an American collector, and principally it is the American collectors who are having an effect.
Turning to slightly later Chelsea ceramics (gold anchor) – a pair of claret ground vases circa 1765 which sold for $US16, 800 in New York in 2004. The archive information shows their sale in December 1975 from the Dunlap Collection for $800. The two sales show a 20 fold increase in price since 1975 whereas prices generally over that period increased about 5 fold. $800 in 1975 would be $4000 today.
A comparable pair of vases sold in 1957 for $756 and in 1989 for $5,313. This shows a similar lack of increase between 1957 and 1975 as the Chelsea Rabbit Tureen, you have a price of $756 in 1957 and $800 in 1975. Then a jump into the late 1980s and another jump to the present day and it suggests that the prices of Gold Anchor Chelsea were relatively high in the 1950s and then the interest waned. In recent markets we are seeing renewed interest in Gold Anchor Chelsea.
Another Gold Anchor example is an ecuelle cup and stand, c.1765, sold at Sotheby’s in New York in April 2004 for $US39, 000 and the archive card information shows that in1975 it sold in December that year for $800. We have a 50 fold increase in price. The increase in inflation is 5 fold so this piece has increased by 10 times the rate of inflation. The increase may be due to the taste of the buyers in the auction room be because Chinoiserie decoration is now more fashionable whereas in the 1970s the French or Sèvres style of decoration was still more fashionable.
A pair of Gold Anchor Chelsea figures of Sportsman and Companion, about 1765, which sold in New York in April 2004 for $US21, 600 – the archive card shows the same figures selling in 1975 for $1,000. This is a 20 fold increase over the period which is consistent with the vases.
Did the wares of other factories behave the same way as Chelsea over this period? A Worcester mug of decorated with the beckoning Chinaman of about 1756 sold in New York in 2004 for $US4, 500. The same mug had sold in New York in 1976 for $US1, 000. This is only a 4 fold increase so what has occurred to the 20 to 30 times increases we have come to expect from Chelsea? It suggests that perhaps the early Worcester was more in fashion in the early 1970s and that the Gold Anchor Chelsea out of fashion and that the situation was now reversing.
Another Worcester example is a Lord Henry Thynne type teapot, cover and stand. This was sold in 2004 for $US4000 and the same teapot from the Dunlap sale sold for $US2800 in December 1975. The same trend is seen as early Worcester has not increased by the same margin as Chelsea porcelain, and there is even a drop in price in this item because Mrs. Dunlap bought the teapot, cover and stand at her husband’s sale and resold it twelve months later for $US1000 less in 1976. Even if the lower price is compared to today it is still only a four fold increase which is in line with prices generally since 1975 according to the generic index used.
The final Worcester example was a blue scale ground dish, one of a pair sold by Sotheby’s New York in 2004 for $US3900. The same dishes were sold firstly in London in 1965 for the equivalent for $868 and the same pair were sold again in 1980 in New York for $2000, doubling in price since 1980 and showing a 4 fold increase since 1965. This is below the generic price average for the same period. Why was Worcester stronger in price then than it is now? It could be because during that period Worcester was being written about, whereas Chelsea was written about extensively in the late 1940s and 1950s and there were buoyant prices for Chelsea in that period. Literature on Worcester in the 1960s and 1970s lead to great interest and relatively high prices. That may be one factor why Worcester was expensive then and has not increased at the same rate as Chelsea.
To prove that there are always exceptions to rules, a Chelsea version of the pair of Tyrolean dancers (after the Meissen designs dated 1760) sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2004 for $US20, 400. The same group were in the Dunlap sale in 1975 when they sold for $2,500. A ten fold increase over that time, except that two years prior in October 2002, a very similar and comparable group made $US37, 500. The discrepancy could be caused by a small market and the effect a small market can have on pieces. The same thing occurred with the Chelsea Tyrolean dancers in the early1960s when Sotheby’s in London sold one pair for $10,000 and in 1963 a comparable group made only $1,400, and in 1965 another piece made only $1,600. One less bidder at an auction can have a disproportionate effect and I think it shows how the market can be unpredictable.
To use a piece of pottery as an example of this unpredictability we will look at a piece of Staffordshire pottery about 1830, the “Death of Monro”. Monro met his death in India in 1792 and they very quickly commemorated the event in Staffordshire. This particular example sold in New York in 2004 for $US130, 000. The archive card shows the same figure in 1964 at Sotheby’s in London when it sold for $392 and again in April 1985 in New York it sold for $US7, 250. So there is a huge jump to the present day. Looking at the twenty year 1964 – 1985 span there is a 20 fold increase in price, and from 1985 to today there is another 20 fold increase in price. As a reference, the cost of living increase during the same periods 1964 – 1985 was 600% and from 1985 to 2004 around 100%.
There were however two similar Munro figures sold at auction by Sotheby’s and Christies in 2002 and 2003 and they sold $27,500 and $45,000 respectively. So one or two years later the huge price difference is due to two very determined bidders. The buyers are the reverse of the previous example where there was one bidder less and the price drops substantially. Another version of this figure was sold in May of this year, slightly damaged, but it sold in London for £25,000 which is in line with the examples sold two to three years ago. It is a classic example of one bidder, in this case someone who was not a collector of ceramics but who liked the figure, and this distorts the auction picture.
What factors other than fashion can affect the price? The Rous Lench collection was sold in London in 1986, and at that sale a set of English Delftware “Merry man” plates were sold for $US22, 880. The Rous Lench collection is a good example in this context because it was a landmark single owner sale. It is a legendary collection of English pottery and its items were not only of extraordinary quality but were fresh to the market and these made exceptionally strong prices when they came up in 1986 and afterwards, and they really set a benchmark for English pottery.
The “Merry man” plates were then resold in 2002 in New York from the collection of Richard and Joy Canter and at that time they made $40,000. The price difference agrees with our generic price calculator- they have gone along with the increase in prices. Even with exceptionally strong prices, quite often when you have single owner sales where people can go crazy in their bidding, if the items are later resold then the prices go often down in real terms. When it is such an important collection however as Rous Lench, even though the prices were exceptionally high at that time, almost twenty years later they have not gone down in price but they have maintained their real value. This proves the old adage of buy the best that you can afford!
The Rous Lench collection set a benchmark for British Pottery and the peak of the market was in the second half of the 1980s. There has not been another collection of comparable pottery since this collection came on to the market and some of the major buyers of the 1980s are no longer active so the market is a little softer now. In June 2005 a massive and very rare English (probably Brislington) Delftware blue and white dish dated 1703 with the initials “W H M” and 60 cm across came on to the market. Only two other examples of this type have been recorded prior to the emergence of this one. One is in the City Art Gallery at Bristol and painted with Chinese figures in a panelled border, and the second one is in the Gambier-Parry collection in Gloucestershire which is similar. All three dishes have the same initials and date and were probably made to commemorate a marriage, and most certainly painted by the same hand. Dated pieces are of greater interest and this date is early by standards of English Delft. Due to the factors of its size, rarity and being dated, the bowl sold for £24,000 against an estimate of £7,000 - 10,000. It is difficult to provide accurate estimates for such rare items and even when comparable pieces come on to the market, you can only provide an informed guess.
Another example of English pottery was a Leeds type earthenware model of a stallion, from the North Country and dating to around 1830 and 40 cm high. Leeds pottery is probably best known for producing these large scale horse models of this type with a pearlware glaze and they were made between about 1800 and 1820; this slightly later model was probably a regional variation of the same mould. They are among the largest free standing English pottery models and the horses were said to have been made for use as window displays for equestrian suppliers. A single model was sold by Bonham’s in 2002 for £17,500 and a more plainly decorated pearlware model sold in 2001 for £12,000. The one illustrated sold in June for 15,000 pounds against an estimate of eight to twelve thousand pounds so it is fairly consistent with recent prices. It is also important to realise that this was a decorative market rather than being aimed at specialist collectors for this material. Horses are a good subject, this was a large piece which had a very strong decorative element, and evidence of this is the fact that damage does not seem to have been so important. It had been off its base and re-stuck and this would have had a dampening effect on prices in a collectors market.
A rare white Chelsea figure of a seated Guanyin of about 1750-1752 and a similar figure by Longton Hall of about 1750 were obviously after Chinese Blanc-de-chine originals. Direct copies of Chinese pieces appeal to a slightly narrower market as they are not typical productions of these factories, nevertheless the Chelsea example made £3,800 and the Longton Hall example made £2,600. They both had an estimate of 2,000 - 3,000 pounds. The Longton Hall figure was sold for the exact same amount in 1991 and so this is a decrease in real terms and demonstrates that the market for Chelsea may be stronger than for some of the smaller factories.
Next to be shown are Chelsea and Bow Kakiemon pieces from a collection which had a variety of patterns and the Two Quail pattern featured on a number of pieces. Chelsea has a very strong and broad international market and there appears to be a bigger pool of collectors for it than for any other English factory. The Bow sold in line with its estimates, the Two Quail pattern can be quite difficult to sell if they are tired or worn or rubbed. A Chelsea dish however sold for double its pre-sale estimate. Rare and unusual Kakiemon patterns are very sought after and can make quite a lot of money.
To show that even smaller factories can command high prices, a Bow sparrow beak cream jug about 1755 was painted with a very rare Japanese style pattern with two crabs on one side and two shrimps on the reverse. Rare and unusual pieces in almost any factory do command a premium even amongst a smaller pool of collectors. The shape is quite common and if decorated with the two quail pattern it would probably be under £1000 in value. The design with the crabs and shrimps actually sold for £3,500 pounds against an estimate of £1,500 – 2,000. It was sold in 1989 from the Boothman Smallwood collection for £1,600, so roughly doubling in price since 1989 which proves the interest in rare and unusual pieces.
The Chelsea gold anchor figures have had a chequered history and in the late 19th century Gold Anchor wares were extremely expensive relative to the earlier Chelsea. In Lady Charlotte Scriber’s memoirs she describes her hunt for porcelain in great detail and reflects upon the fact that Gold Anchor porcelain was so expensive and really sought after and this continued until after the 1950s and 1960s and then it tailed off. There was always a vogue for this very lavish and rich decoration. It also relates to the taste for 18th century French furniture. In the 1950s when the prices were still high there were a lot of American collectors furnishing their homes with eighteenth century French style furniture and when they went to buy porcelain it was Chelsea Gold Anchor porcelain that was purchased because it’s the most lavish English porcelain of the eighteenth century. It became unfashionable however in the 1970s and 1980s and a taste developed for the earlier pieces of the Red Anchor and Raised Anchor periods, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. There now appears to be a revival for Gold Anchor period, the figures of the Imperial Shepherd and Shepherdess circa 1765 being sold recently for £4200, the estimate having been £2,000 - £3000.
An example of 19th century ceramics, a Minton ship pot-pourri vase and cover around 1890 which was copied from the Sèvres Vaisseau a Mat of 1758 – 1762. It is a very interesting period as it demonstrates the 19th century taste for historical revival and it is also evidence of enduring English taste for the 18th century Sèvres style which did not go out of fashion throughout the 19th century. There are not collectors of Minton in the same way as people collect Wedgwood, it is more a decorative market rather than a factory market, and prices in this area have been consistent and probably rise in line with inflation. The really strong demand for Minton is for Pate-sur-pate and in the last five years prices for this type of ware have increased considerably. Minton has an extraordinarily wide range of products and the quality is exceptional, but in areas other than Pate-sur-pate the prices have lagged.
Continental porcelain is a very complex field and it is very difficult to generalise, but the 18th century Continental porcelain market is probably more polarised than the English porcelain market; very good pieces sell for very high prices. There is variation between factories; Sèvres porcelain for example is quite consistently strong. There is a strong international market for Sèvres and its prices have increased at a fair rate but the smaller French factories are more difficult. The picture is similar in Germany, which had a good dozen factories in the 18th century. The market for some of the smaller German factories, where the collectors themselves are mainly German, has become soft, whereas Meissen is stronger albeit not as strong as Sèvres. The exceptional items do very well but the more average pieces can be hard to sell.
Du Paquier was the second hard paste porcelain factory in Europe after Meissen, being founded in 1719 by Mr. Du Paquier and eventually it was eventually taken over by the state to become the Vienna Imperial factory in 1744. Du Paquier is known for its sheer originality of design, with a quirkiness and very baroque feel. What is interesting about Du Paquier is that the designs and shapes are not really based on existing Asian prototypes like Chinese or Japanese, or on metalwork like silver, which was the case at Meissen where early on they copied the shapes which they had around them. Du Paquier however is very quirky and seems to combine all sorts of disparate elements and it came up with some very unusual pieces. Collecting interest in Du Paquier has been fairly quiet for a number of years. The material is very rare, as it was not a large factory, and so pieces to not come up very often, but in the last five years we have seen an explosion in prices, and this is mostly due to a handful of American collectors. Again it is this factor where one or two people can make an enormous difference and American collectors in the international market have the necessary purchasing power.
Examples from a Sotheby’s sale in June 2005 include a tray measuring 43 cm, probably made around 1730 - 1735 and there is no other one known of this size and Meissen probably could not technically make a piece like this. Firing flat porcelain is extremely difficult and complicated. The decoration typically of Du Paquier is very original with a combination of children playing, a Baroque cartouche and oriental flowers. It also had an important provenance as it was owned probably since it was made by a princely family in Austria and it was loaned to the first Great Exhibition of Viennese porcelain held in Vienna in 1904. This exhibition included 2000 exhibits and a catalogue was issued giving descriptions but there was not one illustration. The sale estimate was £80,000 – £120,000 and it sold for £220,000, being bought by an American couple who will give it to the Art Institute of Chicago as a gift.
Another very rare piece of Du Paquier was made around 1720 in the first year or two of production and of very unusual shape and unusual decoration. The lower register has peasants going to market and the upper register has nobility and there is also a parrot and women squabbling! Taken from a print source it is a wonderful technique of painting very much like a drawing, one of the first pieces they did. It sold for £58,000 against an estimate of £40,000 – £60,000 even though it had a replacement metal spout and a replacement silver cover. It is hard to imagine a piece from any other factory around at the moment, with comparable damage and losses, making this sort of money, maybe Chinese porcelain, but not European, and it shows what can happen when a small group of determined and wealthy collectors enter the market. Ten years ago that sort of price would have been inconceivable.
The very best pieces are making enormous prices and a factor in this is academic knowledge and an understanding the origin of some of the pieces. This is especially true of Meissen and a pair of Meissen Woodpeckers illustrate this. Meissen made a lot of animals and birds in the 1740s and 1750s but these are exceptional and were modelled very early around 1733 by Kändler for the Japanese Palace in Dresden. The Meissen factory was founded in 1710 by the Elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong and he was the first person in Europe to have a real porcelain factory and it not just about making nice porcelain but it represented his power and his wealth. He decided not to build a porcelain cabinet as was the custom in baroque palaces, but to build a whole palace to house his porcelain collection. He was an avid collector of Chinese porcelain and now he had his own factory and his own Japanese Palace on the banks of the river to display it in.
The ultimate message of the porcelain palace is all about representation. The message that Augustus was sending out was that he was not the equal of the King of Prussia or the King of France but that he was the equal of the Chinese Emperor.
Regarding the two birds from the Japanese Palace, there were ten delivered, six survived into the 20th century. Two are still in the Dresden collection and four were sold following the First World War. They were purchased in 1919 in an auction by a Danish collector and then in turn they were sold in 1953 when they were bought by the current owners. The estimate on these birds was too low at £10,000 – £15,000. The reason for this being that these bird models were also made only ten years later, and they bring this price, and the current pair had some damage. They were sold for £75,000, because of an understanding of what they meant, of what the palace represented, the knowledge that the objects of this palace represent so much more. A book has been recently published on the Japanese Palace animals and it is really a good example of how something like that can affect the prices drastically.
Two large herons by Kändler of 1733; 11 delivered to the Japanese Palace, and 6 still exist. The large animals come onto the market extremely rarely, the last examples sold a few years ago. The top price paid for the figure of a fox was $A2million. A pair of herons sold in Paris recently for $A9million. This shows that at the top end of the market, something really important does not appeal just to porcelain collectors, it also appeals to people who are interested in sculpture and who buy simply wonderful great objects, so you have a larger market which is why we are seeing high prices for porcelain.
Overall the market for European ceramics is generally more stable than most as it covers so many styles and periods and has a broad base of collectors. You do not see the fashion driven speculation that you see in contemporary art which leads to extreme price volatility, however what we do see is that certain areas are obviously sought after and we have seen that Chelsea and Du Paquier and at the top end only Meissen can make very high prices, whereas some of the smaller factories comparatively cheap or historically quite cheap.
Inasmuch as it is possible to generalise about such a diverse field, European ceramics hold their value pretty well over the longer term. If there is a danger it is that less and less good material comes on the market. In the US several collectors give their collections to museums so when it becomes more and more difficult to buy things there is a danger that interest can wane. Generally speaking the market is in good health and it has a broad range of collectors; most European ceramics are far more humble in price and more accessible and it is interesting a very stimulating area to collect.