1 June 2023
Lyon & Turnbull
In June 2023, our Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs auction included the British pottery and porcelain library of a well-known Scottish collector which formed a fully comprehensive reference library on the subject with several exceptionally scarce and unique items.
We were delighted to present the British pottery and porcelain library of a well-known Scottish collector in our June 2023 Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs auction. The collection forms a fully comprehensive reference library on its subject, containing several exceptionally scarce and unique items, in addition to the most important writings on the subject. Many of the books were also once part of the library of the ceramics specialist, collector and Antiques Roadshow expert Geoffrey Godden, who had the opportunity to purchase several items which were not commercially available.
Britain has a long and rich history with pottery and the collection presented here takes the reader from the medieval period (see, for example, R.L. Hobson’s 1903 Catalogue of the collection of English Pottery in the department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum) through the 16th century and the arrival of tin-glazed English delftware (see Lot 196) and onto Wedgwood and the growth of the Staffordshire and other regional potteries during the industrial revolution (see Lots 191, 195, 198 and 199).
A gem of the collection is a 1777 edition of Josiah Wedgwood’s Catalogue of Cameos, intaglios, medals, busts, small statues, and bas reliefs: with a general account of vases and other ornaments after the antique, made by Wedgwood & Bentley; and sold at their rooms in Greek Street Soho London (Lot 200) This scarce catalogue is the fourth edition of the work, and is considerably larger than the first of 1773. It includes references to Wedgwood's recently perfected "fine white artificial jasper, of exquisite beauty and delicacy; proper for cameos and bas-reliefs". The introductory text for each section includes much valuable commentary concerning details of ongoing improvements in manufacturing methods and the development of Wedgwood's business activities, stylistic influences and patrons.
A unique highlight of the collection is a pattern book for Taylor and Kent’s ‘Queen’s Ware’ (cream-coloured earthenware) cups and saucers from their Florence Works in Stoke-on-Trent (Lot 194). The volume is a treasure-trove of original coloured designs, moving onto sample transfer prints as the pattern book nears its final pages dating from the early 1950s. In a similar vein, the library also holds the typed and hand-drawn catalogue of Dr Atwood Thorne, ceramics expert and author of Pink Lustre Pottery, a handbook for collectors, 1926 (Lot 189). The small volume, comprising 46 hand-painted illustrations and 361 typed leaves, demonstrates Thorne’s meticulous record keeping in an age where simply taking a photograph of individual items was not a simple process.
*All sold prices include buyer's premium.
Lyon & Turnbull’s dedicated team of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Maps specialists have established an international reputation for their auctions, selling both through our UK auction house, and via live online auctions. Our specialists are experts not only on books and manuscripts, but also on current market conditions, an essential combination to the successful sale of fine antiquarian books, modern first editions, folios, autographed letters and important archives.
