Rare and unusual glassware going up for auction
“WE produce so many good artists in this c o u n t r y ”, remarked the glassmaker Tessa Clegg, “but we would rather lag the roof than buy art”.
Clegg made the observation in a newspaper interview after winning the 1998 Jerwood Prize, the most prestigious award open to art glass artists.
She was famous but whilst galleries in Paris and Basel were selling her work, the major British galleries had almost zero interest in contemporary art glass and not one of of them had taken up the opportunity to represent her. Quite amazing.
Clegg was one of the pioneers of what’s known as the lost wax technique of kiln glass casting. It is a time consuming and technically demanding process but it permits the creation of quite extraordinary pieces.
Her work took the 1996 Venice Aperto Vetro art fair by storm and even before the Jerwood Prize win she had been awarded commissions by the Corning Glass Museum in New York, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and, somewhat belatedly perhaps, the V&A in London.
Of course not absolutely all the British were more interested in lagging their roofs than buying art. There were fans of contemporary ceramics and glass and those included Mavis and Brian Walsh who opened our region’s first gallery devoted to these art forms. Having moved up to Beverley from London in the early 1980s (and living on a converted barge on Beverley Beck) they bought the Beck’s Lock House to open their gallery, later moving it to Church Farm at Garton on the Wolds where the business was to remain until they retired in 1991. Throughout this period they travelled throughout the country to meet and forge links with the contemporary potters, glassmakers, sculptors and artists whose work they wished to offer for sale in their gallery – and include in their own private collection.
Thirty years later Mavis and Brian, now both in their nineties, have decided that it is time to part with their remarkable private collection, which is how we come to be staging a very special Studio Ceramics, Glassware and Art Medals Auction next Friday, July 17. The rare and unusual pieces that are going under the hammer include four Tessa Clegg pieces dating from 1985-86, so acquired by the Walshes long before most of the rest of Britain recognised just how unusual was the work of this talented glass artist.
A frosted pate de verre (glass paste) bowl is expected to make £150-£200.
Meanwhile three striking, tall, storytelling vases, created with Liz Crowley, have pre-sale estimates of £200-£250.
Another of the many artists of note included in the collection and the auction is the potter Diane Cross. Two of her pieces are quite spectacular vases (both expected to make £100-£150) but the third lot is a pair of animal figures . . . a cross-eyed, overweight, cat and its similar elephant friend. Great fun and likely to be a snip at £30-£50. Meanwhile, speaking of snips, the star of the show is a bronze medal entitled “Diamond” created by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003), one of the most important British sculptors of the second half of the 20th century.
The medal was struck in 1983 for the recently launched British Art Medal Society, an organisation formed to encourage contemporary medallic art in Britain and to enable the public to buy original sculpture at affordable prices. The Diamond medal, which was related to a large-scale work of the same name, was the only medal that Chadwick ever created.
It was produced in a limited edition of 128 that were sold back in 1983 at just £2. Next week it is expected to make £1,000-£1,500.
In total the auction extends to 201 lots. The full catalogue is available on the Internet (www.spicersauctioneers.com).
The viewing sessions at the Exchange Saleroom in Driffield are on Wednesday and Thursday (July 15 and 16) 10am-4pm and on Friday (July 17) from 9am until the start of the auction at 10 o’clock. It will be webcast live on the internet via thesaleroom.com and easyliveauctions.com.