There is a "special sale" taking place on thursday march 3rd at
leonard Joels auction house here in Melbourne, which consists of a single collection of the work of a potter named Gwen Watson. Like so many of her contemporary potters in the first half of the 20th century she worked alone, untrained, modelling pieces in the kitchen, firing them in an electric kiln in the bedroom, initially as a hobby, later providing pieces to retail stores in Melbourne and Sydney, and eventually expanding her skills to make jewellry and murals.
I went to the viewing yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The pieces are much more ornate and cute compared with my usual taste, and surprisingly big, but this was more than made up for by their sense of fun and I can just imagine her enjoying making them - with darning needles and hairpins according to the catalogue. The bug orchestra was hilarious, and there are other orchestras made up of frogs and koalas. Most are estimated at between $50 and $1000 Australian, but I don't know if anybody knows what they will actually sell for. Think I deserve an early birthday present..
PS. Sent my husband off with a shopping list of possible presents and he came back with nothing! All the ones I liked went for about four times their estimate. Cest la vie.
Hi there.. i am sorry to hear that your husband came home empty handed... and how interesting that things sold well above their estimates... but not good for you. I haven't heard of her or her funny pots so thanks for your post.. much appreciated...very interesting and informative. best wishes DaVID
ReplyDeleteNo, I hadn't heard of her either! I think thats why the estimates were so low- to entice people along and allow the market to place her work in relation to other potters of that time. Once bidding gets to a certain level the thoughts start to occur- with this much money I could buy a small merric boyd, or philippa james pot- which would I rather have? The good news is that I still have other options for a birthday present!!
ReplyDeleteAugust 2020 - there is very little to no information about Gwen Watson, other than her birth & death. Nothing in Wikipedia all other stuff on the Net are photos of her work.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about a piece I purchased in the 1980’s from the maker’s shop in Whitehorse Road Deepedene. Her work was magnificent. Wondering if Gwen Watson had shop there?
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