12 21st January 2012 auction reports


A racing cert – it’s Moorcroft Buoyant again


Roland Arkell reports


THE story of how Moorcroft Boy recorded one of the great comebacks in racing history when he recovered from a horrific injury at Aintree in 1995 to win the Scottish National the following year is part of horse racing lore.


Less well known is that the horse – now in


happy retirement – was named by owner and businessman Ken Manley after the potter who first caught his eye in the early 1970s. Four decades on, Mr Manley has one of the finest collections of Moorcroft in the country. A house move occasioned its downsizing to


around 400 pieces with the rest, nearly 100 items, being consigned to the British Art Pottery sale at Woolley & Wallis (22% buyer’s premium) of Salisbury on November 30 where they were offered in 64 lots. There were routine pieces from


across the Macintyre, William and Walter Moorcroft periods, but this was no second eleven. It included, as its centrepiece, an apparently unique Bamboo and Orchids pattern vase from 1914. Illustrated in Paul Atterbury’s Moorcroft Pottery, this 13in (32cm) vase is believed to have been inspired by a watercolour by Thomas Moorcroft (William’s father) that had received a silver medal from the Department of Art and Science in 1875. It was estimated at £10,000-15,000


and found its low estimate – seemingly the highest price paid for a piece of Moorcroft in 2011. Sold at £4800 (estimate £3000-4000)


was a pair of Macintyre period double- gourd Florian Ware vases, 8½in (22cm) high, painted in the Pansy pattern in green and red on a salmon pink ground, while a 9in (23cm) baluster vase in the Spanish pattern (introduced 1910) sold for £3200 (estimate £2000-2500). All were in perfect condition save a tiny glaze frit to the rim of the latter. Moorcroft from other vendors keen to sell alongside Manley included a pair


Above left: one of a pair of Pansy pattern Macintyre period Florian Ware vases from the Ken Manley Collection at Woolley & Wallis – £4800. Above centre: one of a pair of damaged but finely painted Macintyre Florian Ware landscape vases from a different vendor – £6000. Above right: star of the Manley collection at Salisbury, a William Moorcroft Bamboo and Orchids pattern vase – £10,000.


Additional highlights from Woolley & Wallis’s British Art Pottery auction.


Left: a Martin Brothers ‘anemone’ form miniature gourd – £1400.


Right: a Doulton ewer decorated by Florence Barlow with a pâte sur pate red squirrel – £3800.


the 1970s before the publication of the book on the factory and the landmark exhibition at Richard Dennis. Modelled with forward-looking gaze


and hooked beak and incised Martin Bros London & Southall, it stood 7in (17.5cm) high. The hammer fell in the middle of the £7000-9000 estimate. However, a price of perhaps greater


of 10in (25cm) Macintyre Florian Ware landscape vases painted with stylised tall trees in shades of green and blue on a white ground. Both were damaged, but specialist Michael Jeffery considered them “probably the best painted Moorcroft vases I have seen”. They were contested to a double-estimate £6000. The British Art Pottery auction,


including sell-out sections of Pilkington’s Lancastrian ware from the Bill Coles Collection and an 18-lot collection of pieces from the Dennis Chinaworks, was also particularly strong on William De Morgan and studio pottery. The final part of the Jon Catleugh collection of tiles by De Morgan, offered in 57 lots, met minimal resistance, with the top


price of £2600 shared by both a Sand’s End Pottery two-tile Galleon panel and a three-tile panel decorated with two serpents before foliage. Particularly positive in the context


of a sometimes selective market was the 90 per cent selling rate recorded by 125 lots of studio wares. Active potters such as Paul Young and John Maltby shared the success of Lucie Rie, Bernard Leach and his contemporaries. A 7½in (18.5cm) flattened form bottle vase with a tenmoku lustre glaze made by Shoji Hamada while at the Leach Pottery in St Ives led proceedings at £3200. Included among other highlights was


a small Martin Brothers stoneware bird jar and cover purchased by the vendor in


note in this section was tendered for a miniature ‘anemone’ form vase dated 4-1906 and glazed in ochre and green. Particularly well potted even by the standards of R.W. Martin, it measured just 2½in (6.5cm) and was estimated at £300- 500 but sold at £1400. These miniature gourds have become a collecting field in their own right. A low estimate but a high price was


the consensus following the performance of a 12in (30cm) Doulton Lambeth ewer of slender form decorated by Florence Barlow with a pâte-sur-pâte red squirrel within a scrolling foliate border by Eliza Simmance. The subject matter (unusual for Barlow) saw it bring £3800, many times the low estimate of £250. A Bernard Moore flambé glazed bowl,


measuring 18in (45cm) across, with patinated metal mounts and foot sold above hopes at £2200. It was decorated inside and out (to an impressed Minton blank) with scrolling dragons. It, too, was from the collection of Ken Manley.


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