BUYING SAM HERMAN’S GLASS

Herman estimated that he made just over 2,500 pieces of glass (from 1966 to 1984 and from 2007 to 2017), so the quantity available to the market is limited, and many of his works are already in private and public collections. Until quite recently, Herman’s work sold at auction from low hundreds of pounds up to around £2,000. The past few years have seen his work begin to climb steeply in value, with prices in the low thousands being regular. The very best, most representative works can now easily fetch over £10,000 in galleries where his work is rightly sold as art.

At the top of the tree are large bulbous pieces made at the Jam Factory in Australia using the ‘wet stick’ process, curving dish forms also made at the Jam Factory, and sculptural forms that echo the human torso made at any point in his career. The stronger and more varied the colours, the better, and the iridescent presence of silver chloride is desirable. Very rare and desirable are sculptures made up of a number of pieces and mounted on a rectangular glass base. Early works made at the Royal College of Art from 1967–70 are scarce, as Herman spent so much time teaching, he had little opportunity to make glass himself. Works that are more like functional vessels (such as vases) in form sit somewhere in the middle, with desirability and value depending on the size, colours, complexity and date.

Most commonly found are exuberant pieces made at his Lots Road studio, from 1979–84, which are typically vibrant in colour with a wealth of detail such as swirls, mottled effects and applied multi-coloured frit.

Most affordable are the 1970s–80s works he designed (but didn’t personally make) for Val Saint Lambert and Rosenthal, which can still be found for low-mid hundreds of pounds.

I feel strongly that Herman’s work still has a long way to go in terms of price. As to where it should be placed in the market, it is arguable that the most suitable parallel is the work of the eminent studio potter Hans Coper. This applies both in terms of the nature of the way he worked with his chosen material, his pioneering nature and his enormous influence as a teacher. Furthermore, just as studio ceramics have begun to blossom in value, with key works now selling for tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds so, I believe, will studio glass.