As often happens with auctioneers, an initial tentative enquiry can lead to amazing places...

Andy Spicer, Director of Spicers Auctioneers recently had an email from a new client asking if we sold Studio Pottery as her father had some he was thinking of letting go. A meeting was arranged according to social distancing requirements and by the time Andy arrived at the property for the few pieces it had grown to twenty.

Auction procedures and values were discussed and Andy went away to collect some packing and boxes, when he came back the collection had grown to 80 pieces! The next week he went back for another 70 pieces!

It turns out that this new client had lived in South East London and begun collecting, buying and selling modern pottery direct from the potter. They moved to the East Riding because of the Brixton Riots of 1981/82 and lived on a converted barge on Beverley Beck. When the lock keeper retired they bought his house as a gallery for their new business in 1984, calling it The Copernican Connection. Every eight weeks or so they had one man or collective exhibitions displaying the work of potters, glass blowers and sculptors and one day a week they would travel the country on buying trips meeting the makers.

In 1988 they moved the gallery to Garton when a farmhouse became available and closed it in 1990 due to ill health, putting the stock into storage. Now some 20 years later it is coming onto the market and collectors will have a rare opportunity to purchase some rare and unusual pieces.

The highlight is by a Japanese potter Takeshi Yasuda (b.1943), a monumental 'Sansai glaze' platter, circa 1990, with a £1000/1500 estimate. Other highly collectable artists are Nigerian Siddig El Nigoumi (1931 - 1996), with two plates and a vase, Ewen Henderson, David Leach and Lynn Chadwick.

The collection, along with other vendors entries, will be sold on the 17th July and further details can be found at www.spicersauctioneers.com or contact the saleroom on 01377 593593.