PROFILE: RICHARD DENNIS
The esteemed ceramics dealer on his varied career
Dealer and art publisher Richard Dennis has held many a launch party over his long career. But in 1978, guests to the opening of his landmark Martinware exhibition received a special treat: a whimsical invitation in the form of a salt-glazed po!ery model of a po!ery shop. Made by Dorset po!er Ian Gregory, this was undoubtedly one of the most unusual invitations he had ever conceived. ‘We made 100 of them. I don’t recall what they cost, but it was very li!le. Out of cheek we even sent one to John Betjeman,’ he reminisces. Looking back, he says Martinware was the most enjoyable and memorable of all the exhibitions he held. ‘On the opening night we were introducing cousins who had never met.’ Even now that opening party stands out, not least because the invitations themselves are collectable – two recently sold for over £1,000.
Richard Dennis’s career as a champion of Victorian art and design had started two decades earlier. He was a keen collector from an early age. ‘Like many li!le boys, my interest began with collecting cigare!e cards and shrapnel.’ Brought up in rural north Kent, he hadn’t thought this could be a way to earn a living, until, having le" the army a"er his National Service, he went up to London with a friend. ‘It was a sudden awakening. I’d thought antiques were just sold by li!le old ladies in villages. Suddenly, I saw there was Sotheby’s and big antiques shops. I never looked back.’
His #rst job was working for an American dealer in Paris, exporting art glass to the United States. A"er a year
he returned to London and worked buying and selling antiques in Bermondsey. Realising he needed to improve his knowledge, he joined Sotheby’s in 1959. ‘I started sweeping the %oor, then worked in the glass department. While there, I persuaded them to sell Ti&any and Gallé. For most people then the world of antiques ended in 1820.’
He le! Sotheby’s "ve years later, by which time the art market was changing, as interest in Victorian art and design gradually awakened. Heading to South America with a friend, he took a bag packed with silver to sell. ‘With the proceeds we bought French glass paperweights, all made in the mid-1800s, that had been taken out by French émigrés as souvenirs.’ The pro"ts from the paperweights enabled him to take the lease on a Kensington Church Street shop, which opened in 1967. ‘It had been empty since the war; rent was £25 a month.’ To begin with, he specialised in glass, but gradually Victorian ceramics took over. One way to encourage collectors, he decided, was to accumulate a collection of objects, produce a detailed specialist catalogue and hold a selling exhibition that would help to establish and sustain the market. Doulton Lambeth stoneware was his "rst such enterprise. ‘It came about because Bermondsey market starts very early at 4am or 5am on Fridays and by 9am it’s "nished, and everyone is hungry and tired. I remember looking round and saying to a colleague, “all this Doulton is still here, so why don’t we do something with it?”’ He set about ‘hoovering up’ all the Doulton stoneware he could "nd. ‘When you see it all together it starts to make sense. It’s great fun to do and Doulton is a natural collectable because there’s so much of it.’
Following the same model, over subsequent years he pioneered awareness and nurtured collectors of Victorian and 20th-century design, forming collections and holding groundbreaking selling exhibitions of Moorcro!, De Morgan, Parian, Poole, Pilkington, Portmeirion, Wedgwood,
Burgess & Leigh, Cornishware, Ercol, Midwinter and many more. Small catalogues gradually gave way to larger specialist books that remain benchmarks for collectors, auctioneers and dealers. Of the 100 or so books he’s produced, Richard’s only regret is missing a trick with Clarice Cli&. ‘We had started collecting, but then someone in Brighton did an exhibition and a catalogue, and I thought, “I’m too late”.
William Moorcroft for James MacIntyre Daisy vase c1902, £350; Robert Wallace Martin for Martin Brothers bird jar, £38,000; Sally Tuffin for Dennis Chinaworks limited-edition vase after William De Morgan, £480; William De Morgan lustre vase c1890, £3,400; Hannah Barlow for Doulton Lambeth stoneware vase, £800, all sold at Kinghams.
But I gave up too early – there have been at least 10 books since.’
Through his interest in Moorcro!, Richard became friendly with Walter Moorcro! (son of William) and his half-brother, John. When the company fell into "nancial di#culty, he and a client, who was a keen collector, stepped in. Meanwhile, Richard’s wife, Sally Tu#n, a successful fashion designer, turned her hand to designing pots. ‘They had tried to keep it going by making it cheaper. I said, “No, let’s make collectable pots”. And it worked.’ He was later awarded an OBE for helping to save the company and for championing British po$ery.
In 1993, Richard and Sally le! Moorcro! to run their own po$ery, Dennis Chinaworks, in the converted stable of a Victorian Gothic rectory in Somerset. Richard also continues to publish specialist books – there’s one on Stuart glass in the pipeline. He no longer scours Bermondsey at dawn, but still enjoys the Shepton Mallet antiques fairs, and keeps an eye on auctions at Lawrences of Crewkerne. He’s just started a collection of sugar tongs. A book will probably follow.