An Art of the People: Collecting Studio Pottery

 Mike Yates, a passionate collector himself has recently written a beautiful booklet, about his own collecting journey, which not only goes into the history of studio pottery, but talks about some other avid collectors as well. It's an absolute must for anyone interested in ceramics.

Many of you will be familiar with Mike Yates from the talks he has given to the Friends, going back as far as 2012 when he gave a talk entitled 'Smashing Pots'  and more recently a talk on 'The Role of Ceramics' to accompany a ceramics exhibition of pots belonging to Mike and loaned for the exhibition. Here he is seen with an Ian Auld pot while talking to a packed gallery of members of the Friends..

Anyone who is a collector will recognise the collecting journey Mike takes us on, remembering the circumstances when each item in the collection was acquired. The main thing is that although there is a financial cost to collecting, it's always worth it if you love what you are collecting.
Mike mentions a bowl in the booklet made by Ursula Mommens , who has a fine heritage which he outlines. The bowl is just gorgeous, he bought it ten years ago from a gallery in London. The point is he still admires it and is still wondering if the fish look like flying fish; they do seem to be moving as seen below:

Another Mommens bowl, similar to this one, recently came up for auction it was part of a collection of some 1.200 pieces owned by Michael Evans, also known as Dayabandhu. His collection was featured in an article about his collection in a Design magazine produced by the Guardian recently:

 It's well worth clicking on the link to see the article and much better photos of Dayabandhu's collection.
One of the pieces Mike included in his booklet is this small pressed dish made by Shoji Hamada:

As well as considering the anatomy of collecting, Mike also gives helpful hints on where to find studio pottery including visiting Ceramics Fairs and where to find out about them.
This is a delightful book, if you are intrigued and would like to buy a copy please email admin@friendsofsmag.org
Mike has kindly offered to donate copies to us, so all profits from sales will go to the Friends. I'm selling them at £5 each including postage and packing. So please don't hesitate to buy one!!